All things new
by materp.c
Summary: the team are struggling to fit into the ARC as they have returned to find things have changed. but then back through the anomaly to the future where the team are faced with Helen, up to her tricks agian which causes the team to discover that one of their number isn't truely part of their team. PLEASE REVIEW!
1. settling in sorting things out

Primeval

Another normal day at the ARC, Well as normal as you can get when you work in the Anomaly Research Centre, Professor Nick Cutter, was in his office working on the numerous amount of paperwork that he had been given by their new boss, Hestor. The team had recently come back through an anomaly to find the ARC rebuilt, new security team in place and finding that they had a new boss to contend with; Previously their boss had always been Cutter, so it was quite different now that Cutter had to listen to someone above him. The rest of the team had watched this, smirking every time he and Hestor had an argument.

Steven was attempting to find the security codes that he was told he should have. Hestor apparently set certain areas of the running of the ARC to each team member; his was the security locks for all the doors in the building. But unfortunately considering this was all new to Steven, he did not have a clue where the codes were and the simple task of fixing the outer door had been halted for the whole week that they had been in the 'new' ARC. Raking through filing cabinet after filing cabinet he was wondering whether they even existed.

Abi was trying to take in the size of ARC's zoo. It had creatures from all time periods; from big to small, from cute to plain scary. Her assigned place in the ARC's new system was to take care of the creatures until they could be taken back to their habitats. Abi had worked in a zoo before, albeit not with prehistoric and futuristic creatures, but she knew how to get into a regular feeding routine and knew roughly what she needed to do to care for them. The old ARC had never had room for a zoo, besides they had generally got most of the creatures back through the anomaly, Apart from maybe Rex.

Connor was in the main room fixing the anomaly detector, it had apparently failed in one circuit, although last time they had all seen it, it lay in pieces among the ruins of the ARC. He lay underneath the controls, demanding different tools, which Crystal would promptly hand to him. She would frequently have the right tool in her hand when Connor asked for it. This was half because she knew the procedures in which a circuit was both fixed and taken apart and half because she had this weird connection with Connor that no one could quite understand. Connor's area of expertise, technology, was his allocated place in the ARC. Crystal's allocated place in the ARC was to observe the anomalies and to identify what time period it was, so the team knew what to expect and could return any of the creature's in the ARC's zoo back to their homes. There was a new application on the main anomaly detector that allowed Crystal to do this without much hassle; of course that was when it was working properly!

"Don't suppose that you know where the security codes are, do you?" Steven had given up searching in the filing cabinets and had gone for a stroll, asking about the security codes to anyone who seemed like they might know, along the way.

"Don't suppose you know how to fix this do you?" Connor mumbled from the depths of the wires and other electronic equipment surrounding him. He only waited for a second for an answer.

"Thought not," He retorted. Connor could get rather irritable when something wasn't going his way and Crystal was constantly apologizing for him.

"Ignore him; it's not going too well, where did you last see them?"

"That's the thing; I've never seen them before in my life!" Crystal looked momentarily confused but then as realization took over, her facial expression altered; remembering how most of the team had not a clue what was meant to be done now.

"We'll help you look as soon as we are finished." She indicated towards Connor, who was muttering something that sounded suspiciously like a swear word. Steven nodded, smiling as he turned to go; turned to go into Abi.

Smack! Abi fell into the side of the door, grabbing onto the door handle she saved herself from falling to far but unfortunately Steven fell all the way, banging his head on the concrete floor. Crystal rushed over to help them both up, leaving Connor holding his hand pointlessly out waiting for the screwdriver he had asked for.

"Crystal!" He shouted emerging from his electrical den. Crystal was about to give him a very sarcastic answer, when a considerably loud yell came from Hestor's office, that was unmistakably Cutter.

Steven, Abi and Crystal's head's turned straight up to where the scene was unfolding, Cutter had stormed out the office, Hestor following and Jack was caught in the middle of both of them unsure of whether to interfere or not.

"How the hell am I meant to do all this in two days?" Cutter's voice echoed throughout the ARC's interior.

"You should have completed it weeks ago!" Hestor shouted back.

"How many times have we told you that when we came back through the anomaly things changed, the ARC was in ruins when we entered that anomaly!"

In their hearts everyone agreed with cutter's statement, and wished that Hestor would just take the time to understand what had happened.

Crystal advanced to the mess of the workbench, searching avidly for something. It was paper galore on that bench so there was only a 50% chance that she would actually find what she was looking for, but find it she did. Waving the bit of paper in front of the three completely dazed colleges, she explained that she had found the document in her bedroom and since it had all the dates and times for all the anomaly openings in this month, she had assumed it belonged in the ARC. Now she knew it was meant intentionally for Cutter.

Crystal ran up the staircase, and into Cutter's office. There he sat, head in hands, staring at the paperwork, looking extremely sulky. He perked up a bit when he saw what was on the paper; he could get the paperwork done and handed in by tomorrow, now. He gave Crystal a big cheesy grin and thanked her, stating that he couldn't do it without her.

Cutter watched her leave with a slight bounce in her stepping (an act she did only when she was extremely happy about something) thinking how he quite literally couldn't do without Crystal Mattern, or in fact, any one of his colleagues. They all had special meanings, special jobs, which without, would never be fully the same.

Jack Mattern was feeling an air of excitement as he walked down the steps to inform his sister that he was now officially one of the team. He'd experienced a whole lot of mind-boggling stuff in the past month that he'd taken residence in his sister's and Connor's apartment; anomaly's, prehistoric creatures, stepping into the future, even a mad man with the means to destroy the ARC –which slightly failed as it was already blown to pieces by Helen- and kill the team. Now he was going to have to get used to the ARC's way of life; something everyone seemed to be contending with at the moment.

"Hey" Jack said as he walked into the room. Everyone minus Cutter was there. (Having been already caught up in one of Cutter's arguments earlier on he didn't expect to see him anytime soon.) Connor was putting back the last screw into the anomaly detector screen; Steven was writing something which looked like a load of codes –meaning that he had actually found the security codes somewhere. Abi and Crystal where glued to a laptop screen, Jack, because no one had heard his greeting, sneaking behind them and placing his arms around them both, made them jump.

"Hello my new colleagues, did I frighten you?" Jack asked casually.

"Just a bit," Abi replied.

"Guessing the paperwork is sorted then! Congratulations!" Crystal hugged Jack as a reward.

"At least we won't have the problem of putting the anomaly detector in the bin!" Connor had now joined them. Congratulating Jack in his own way, which meant the receiving of a sarcastic comment which just had bring up a kind of embarrassing moment. The only way to solve this was to throw a sarcastic comment straight back at him.

"Well maybe you will be more careful when you leave it with someone's younger brother next time. That, unfortunately, is what younger brothers do." Crystal always had an answer for Connor tucked away up her sleeve. This was half the reason why she and Connor got on so well.

Crystal gave her brother a big smile to show that she didn't mean the comment to hurt him, only give Connor a light warning. It had worked.

An ear piercingly loud alarm went ringing through the building; it was coming from the newly reinstalled anomaly detector. Connor dashed back to the screen, it was his time to go into business mood. Crystal hastened after him, placing herself so she could see the screen clearly over Connor's shoulder.

"Anomaly is situated in the car park of Tesco's supermarket." Connor changed his whole tone of voice to match his change of mood.

"Fourth storey up, behind the elevator," Crystal added, screwing her eyes up enough to make out this information on the pixelated screen.

"Ah good, Steven get the guns met us in the car, Connor take the laptop, Crystal make sure you've got all the hand held anomaly detectors, Jack you come with me and Abi help Steven, I have a feeling he's gonna have his hands full." Cutter had entered the room, regaining full authority as the team spread out to do his bidding. He liked the authority over people; it made him feel significant, worthwhile and generally important. Which is why he and Hestor where not getting on so well. Both wanted power, both felt it their responsibility and both believed that they had been in charge for as long as the ARC had opened.

"Right, professor Cutter you collect the guns…" Hestor had walked in retaining what he believed to be the only air of authority in the building.

"Steven's doing it," Cutter answered him.

"Well check the hand-held anomaly detectors!"

"Crystal's doing it." Cutter was surprised at himself for being able to keep a calm attitude and a straight face as the argument failed on Hestor's side.

"Well take the laptop!"

"Connor's doing it." Cutter gave Hestor a big smirk which ran right across his face. He had won, no doubt about it.

"I am meant to be giving the orders, it is what I am employed to do, so will you please let me do my job next time!" Hestor left the room in a huff, deprived of his job entitlement.

Cutter turned to his team, which now only consisted of Jack because everyone else had gone to carry out the tasks he had set them, he grinned wishing that the rest of the team had witnessed the last conversation but guessing that Jack would have to do for the time being.

"God I wish the others had heard that! Let's get going, shall we?" Cutter looked at Jack, he looked so young, so naïve and yet in reality he was only one year younger then Connor and Crystal, putting it in that perspective, Cutter apprehended that it wasn't the age deference that made him look young but the fact that to him, everything was relatively new, like a child at a brand new school, just settling in and getting used to the way things worked.

Steven collected five guns, enough for everyone bar Connor. Cutter had refused to let Connor handle a gun since the day that he had shot Abi in the leg. He had deduced that it would be too dangerous to let Connor roam free with a loaded gun when he was absolutely rubbish at shooting the right target. Everyone had been slightly relieved when Cutter had introduced this rule, they had never trusted him with a gun since the first day they got them, he was too childish in his ways to be allowed such a dangerous weapon.

"Are you alright Steven? You seem a little quiet." Abi was always aware when one of her friends where feeling down in the dumps, she seemed to have a sixth sense for it.

"Yeah, it's just all this new stuff, you know, it's been doing my head in and what with Cutter constantly arguing with Hestor and us trying to figure out what's been asked of us, it's just little hard to take in, in one go." Abi smiled at Steven, she knew how he felt, they all did, just some of them where better at hiding it then others.

Connor unplugged the laptop, closed the lid and slid it into the specially designed laptop bag. He slung the strap over his shoulder and went to find Crystal. He found her by the cupboard sorting out the hand-held anomaly detector between the empty shells that Connor was yet to make the electronic wiring for.

"Got them all?" Connor asked, not making himself known before speaking to her.

"Whoa, stop doing that! And when are you going to wire up these extra detectors?" Crystal pointed to the growing pile of black plastic shells.

"We don't need extra detectors, we've got enough!"

"Actually Jack needs one!" Crystal reminded him.

"He can have Cutter's old battered one that he found before we went through the anomaly." Jack had found the detector lying in the rubble of the ARC where the anomaly had opened and opened again. At that point in time Cutter still held his own detector in his hand; a newer and less battered version of the one Jack had found. They had all been a bit confused at that moment in time (apart from Connor, who was in the hospital recovering from a head injury he had got from the impact of rubble falling on top of him as the ARC exploded) but they had understood a few weeks later when Cutter dropped his detector into the anomaly from the other side. Connor had promptly made another one for him and got the battered one to work at a low level.

Crystal agreed because the battered anomaly detector wouldn't work to its full ability and so wouldn't all that much for Jack to handle. She gave Connor his detector before putting the rest, including her own, in a bag.

Connor had made each of the anomaly detector's separately and so had the name of the team member it belonged to, etched onto the back. His own was more advanced than anyone else's' because he kept updating it regularly, adding new aps to it so he could zoom into the location of the anomaly and get the full details before they even arrived. Crystal's detector had an app that allowed her to work out the time period of the anomaly; Abi's had an alphabet of dinosaurs and their qualities, Steven's had a graph showing the right dosage of tranquilizer that will safely tranquilize different sized creatures and Cutter's had a list of excuses to use in different situations when the general public caught sight of the anomaly or one of the creatures.

Crystal followed Connor out into the ARC's car park, where they opened the boot of Connor's car and put their bags, neatly, inside. There wasn't much else in the back of Connor's car, a few electrical tools and a picnic blanket (just in case they decided to stop somewhere for an unexpected sandwich) the rest was completely bare.

Connor pushed the boot door down and they could see Cutter and Jack coming out of the exit, shortly followed by Steven and Abi carrying the five guns which would be put in the back of Cutter's car.

"Right, Jack you go with your sister and Connor in his car and Abi and Steven you can come in mine." Steven was already putting the guns in the back of Cutter's Range-Rover, he knew the drill. Cutter would always make a point of telling them who was going in each car; whatever the situation Steven always went with Cutter.

Crystal had jumped into the front passenger seat before her brother could get there first, (they always seemed to argue about the front seat because they both got travel sickness when traveling in the back,) Connor got into the driver's seat, he, unlike Crystal and Jack, had been driving for six years and it felt extremely natural for him to be behind the wheel. Jack had only passed his test a week or so ago and Crystal hadn't even gone for any driving lessons, she didn't see much point when most of the places she would want to get to where in walking distance or in the same direction that Connor or Jack where going.

Connor put the key into the ignition and started the engine running, turning radio to the right channel while he waited for Cutter to get in his car and drive out of the way.


	2. The TRex

Chapter 2

Boyzone's 'Baby can hold you tonight' blared through the speakers as they arrived at the Tesco's car park; it was the complete opposite atmosphere to Cutter's car, in which there was silence.

Connor parked the car, crossing over the two white parking lines.

"Gees, did you not have to learn how to park a car properly before getting a licence?" Jack commented as he stepped onto the white line which was going vertically underneath him rather than horizontal.

Connor gave him a frown.

"No comment!" he said and walked off towards Cutter's car –which was parked neatly between the lines.

The anomaly was at the far left side of level 4 in the multi-storage car park. It was shining as bright as ever and was larger than your average anomaly. Cutter gave a nod in the anomaly's direction and the team began to advance towards it. They were about halfway there when a deafening roar filled their heads.

"What the heck's that?" Jack cried holding his hands firmly over his ears.

"A rather large dinosaur!" Crystal shouted her reply so it could be heard both over the roar and through Jack's hands. He gave her a nod to show that he had heard it; his face was a complete picture and for once he wasn't putting it on, the grimacing expression was completely and utterly real.

"We need to know what level that dinosaur is on!" Cutter said, the roar having died out.

Connor looked at the car, he was thinking. The keys were already in the ignition as he hadn't bothered to take them out just in case something like this cropped up; it was just a matter of whether the brakes would hold and the petrol wouldn't run out.

"How are we going to do that without being squished?" Abi asked. No one noticed Connor as he slipped back towards the car.

Crystal turned to where Connor had been, she was going to ask him for her anomaly detector so she could define what time period the anomaly was in and then they would have a rough idea of what the dinosaur (if it was a dinosaur) would be. But she found an empty space.

"Connor?" she said grabbing the attention of the rest of the team. She heard the engine start up, turning sharply towards the car her fears where revealed.

"CONNOR!" she shouted after him. Running towards the already moving car, she knew what he was planning and she couldn't let him continue.

Connor felt a lump in his throat as he followed the sound of the creature. A t-Rex by the sound of that roar. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do when he found the t-Rex or what it would do to him but he was going to risk it, after the team had seen him go off like that he couldn't exactly go running back and say he was too scared! Besides he wanted to prove to Crystal that he wasn't the coward that everyone thought he was.

Cutter tugged Crystal's sleeve, averting her eyes from the disappearing car.

"Crystal, he'll be alright, we just need to prepare for when he gets back!" Cutter explained, calming her down slightly. She turned facing the rest of the team. Abi's eyes watched her expression as she slowly walked back to them; Abi could tell that worry was going to cloud her ability to think, something which would be a disadvantage to the rest of the team.

"OH REXY, TREXY! WHERE ARE YOU?" Connor sang out loud, of course didn't expect any reply and was basically saying it to humour himself as he tried to make light of finding the T-Rex. Another loud roar filled his ears. _If only t-rex's where actually like the one in the Night of the Museum! _Connor thought, so much more fun! He felt the floor vibrate underneath him; it was coming closer, time to switch action mode on.

The creature stomped round the corner and Connor edged the car closer towards it. He was on red alert just waiting for the sign. Just a little closer he told himself hoping that it wouldn't be all that much closer. The T-Rex snapped its head in Connor's direction, now! Connor slammed his foot down on the accelerator pedal and veered off to the left fully aware that the T-Rex was following him.

Connor looked back, only once just to check. He wished he hadn't, he was easily scared and when you've got a 13 foot dinosaur on your tail you can't help but be scared witless. He turned his head back to the front and kept it there, using his ears to determine whether or not the T-Rex was still following him.

He drove downwards heading back to the anomaly, he didn't know what he was going to do when he got there but he hoped Cutter would have an idea.

He was on level 6 when the petrol gage light flashed on; he vainly hoped he would be able to reach level 4 before it actually ran out. Pushing the accelerator pedal to the floor Connor zoomed down the last remaining levels, the t-rex still following intent on attempting to eat the unexplainable moving object.

Crystal nearly jumped for joy when she saw Connor's car come round the corner, even if it did have a T-Rex following it at least he was alive.

Connor watched in horror as the petrol gage stopped flickering and stayed red, the car started to slow down without Connor doing anything, then it stopped. Frantically he tried to make the car start again, turning the key in the ignition as the engine rumbled then faded. He had no choice. He threw the door open and jumped out of the car, missing his footing and ending up on the floor.

Steven and Cutter had opened fire aiming at the creature, Abi took the hint and grabbed a gun and joined them, Crystal also took a gun but on realizing that it was a proper gun not a tranquilizer stuffed it in Jack's hand and sought to help Connor.

"CRYSTAL!" Cutter shouted seeing out of the corner of his eye what she was doing.

"CAREFULL!" he added knowing that he wouldn't stop her whatever he tried. Crystal ran over to Connor helping him up and then getting out of the T-rex's way, back over with Jack.

"You get guns you never told me that!" Jack exclaimed holding the gun as if it were dangerous. Crystal looked at her brother with disbelief, all his childhood he had wanted to have a gun (he used to have pretend gunfights with his mates) and now he has one in his possession he doesn't want to know.

"Use it!" Connor told him, he was getting slightly jealous at the sight of it and was very inclined to just take it of him and use it himself but this would only get Cutter angry. Jack aimed it at the creature and fired, the T-Rex's head turned towards them all, roaring as it did so.

"Arg! I think I angered it!" Jack said worryingly.

"We're going at it from the wrong angle!" Crystal explain making a dash over to Cutter. He stopped firing his gun and waited for an alternative option that he knew full well was going to be told to him.

"We want to get it into the anomaly right? So shoot it from behind and it will inevitably go through." She explained Cutter took a moment to think this through, then agreed and ordered everyone to go to back of the creature.

Everyone made a dash for it and made it behind the creature. Five shots rang out and the T-Rex charged forwards directly into the anomaly. Quickly Steven and Cutter surrounded the anomaly, ready for another attack. Thankfully it never came and the anomaly closed within 3 minutes that nothing was on the wrong side of it.

Cutter and Steven lowered their guns and the whole team let out a sigh of relief. Crystal slid an arm around Connor's waist hugging him.

"Make sure you have enough petrol next time you try to do that!" She whispered into his ear. Connor laughed, it was more of an 'I'm so glad that's over with' laugh and promised that he would do in the future.

Abi collected Cutter, Steven and Jack's gun's and put them, along with her own, back into the boot of Cutter's car.

"Oh that reminds me, Jack when you are given a gun you are generally expected to use it and not just look at it!" Cutter reprimanded the newest member of the team.

"And to think you used to have pretend gunfights with your mates when you were younger!" Crystal added for the little brother embarrassment factor. Jack gave his sister a hard glare, it was only maintained for a second, when he recovered from the embarrassment and continued to try and help out.

Crystal moved quickly to Connor's car, opening the boot she rummaged through the bag of detectors to find her own. Picking it up she took it over to where the anomaly had been. Switching it on she flicked through the files until she found the one she was looking for.

"Should be safe on this one, doesn't look like it's due to open for another 10 years or so. Oh by the way it was the cretaceous period explaining the t-rex!" Crystal had searched this information via the anomaly detector.

"And you can work that out by one click of a button?" Jack asked hardly believing it.

Crystal smiled as she glanced at Jack, ignorance was bliss, she was told yet somehow knowledge seemed to be much more enjoyable when you could confuse the ignorant.

"Yes, although some of it's just a matter of putting two and two together!"

Jack sighed, he hated having to admit that his sister was cleverer then he was but it was true and unfortunately he could deny that.

"Right, back to the ARC." Cutter told everyone. Automatically Steven, Abi and Cutter headed for the range rover. Jack headed for Connor's car. Crystal looked at Connor, he hadn't moved, it was like he was debating what to do.

"Erh, no petrol!" Connor announced. Everyone paused turning back around, evidently racking their brains to think of a solution to the problem of no petrol.

Steven was the first to move; he opened the boot of Cutter's range rover, rummaged around and eventually came out with a small can of petrol.

"Never know when you might need it! There's about half a litre in there so don't go using it all up at once!" Steven warned Connor as he gave him the can.

Abi, Steven and Cutter got into the range rover and drove away, telling them they'd met them at the ARC.

Connor filled the empty tank and promptly got into the driver's seat not wanting to be too far behind Cutter. Jack wasn't quick enough and ended up sitting in the back again.

"You were very brave today…" Crystal told Connor softly, she kissed him on the cheek.

"But don't go doing it all the time, there's only so much worry I can handle!"

Connor smiled guiltily, he had gone a little red after Crystal kissed him.

"Hey, come on drive! Or I can do it!" Jack offered knowing to well that Connor wouldn't let him anywhere near the wheel of his car. The keys turned in the ignition and they were off.


	3. Arguements

Chapter 3

"Do we have to do paperwork on that?" Connor asked unbelieving as Cutter handed him the three A4 sheets of paper. He was slightly worried that Hestor would have a go at him for taking too much of a risk with the car manoeuvre. He didn't practically want to be subject of one of Hestor's shouting contests, he wouldn't argue back like Cutter would and would absolutely freak if he shouted too loud at him.

"We'll do it together." Crystal told him knowing how bad he was at paperwork.

Cutter left them to it and headed back to his office. Grudgingly one of Cutter's main priorities was to catch up on the past paperwork that he had apparently never completed, not to mention the extra bits added on to that. It was getting a bit ridiculous and sooner or later he was going to have to do something about it. He could spend his life shut up in his office, he needed to be out helping the team and continuing with developing his theories on the anomalies: on how they appear and why.

Using the information he had collected throughout the years, Cutter was beginning to be able to link it together. Starting off with the 5w questions the team had now narrowed it down to 2 and the added question of how was also still in the air. In his head he had many a theory to how the anomalies appear, but as of yet he couldn't rightly say if any of them where correct or not. Even if the paperwork had to be scribbled down or completely forgotten about, Cutter was going to get those theories down on paper.

"Aim a little higher…yes…that's it…now fire!" Steven was guiding Jack's hand towards the brightly coloured target. Cutter had told him to teach Jack how to use a gun properly and safely. It was about time that somebody learnt to use a gun properly, Cutter was even thinking of retraining the rest of team as some of them had become a little slovenly while in possession of a gun.

"Gees, I shot it! I actually shot it!" Jack exclaimed as he pointed towards the red circle which now had a bullet wedged into it.

"Don't get too excited, it's just a gun!" Steven told him, opening the case in which that particular model of gun was kept.

"Do you know how long I've been waiting to be able to get my hands on a gun?" Jack said extremely enthusiastically.

"Gosh you are like your sister!" Steven commented. "Come on put it back!" reluctantly Jack placed the gun back in the case.

Abi meandered down the long line of cages, she didn't entirely agree to keeping all the animals inside cages but as she could see no alternative she guessed it would have to do.

Abi had found the food storage and used her initiative to work out which food went to which animal. The meat obviously went to the carnivorous creatures and the vegetation to the herbivorous creatures. That halved the supply neatly into two.

With the herbivorous creatures Abi had decided to let the animals sort of help themselves. She left different types of food in their cages and would latter observe which type was eaten and which ones where left.

With the carnivorous creatures, Abi had assumed that they would eat the majority of all meat that she would be to give them and so was dishing out raw bits of steak to each of their cages when she heard a knock on the door. She turned round as she heard the door open. Obviously someone doesn't like to wait for someone to answer the knock before barging in. Abi thought as she made her way up the corridor to whoever had just walking the door.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" Abi called out, for a while there seemed as there was no one there but she had seen the door open and heard someone knock on it before they opened it so there had to be someone.

"Hey Abi." The voice came from behind the wall, a head popped round the corner.

"Jack? Why the hell didn't you tell me I was getting anxious and where you born in a barn?" Abi let her steam out in one go.

Jack went back to the open down and closed it; it was like a young kid whose mother had just rebuked him for leaving all the doors open as he bounded into the house.

"Do you wanna help me feed the rest of these creatures?" Abi asked him when she was satisfied that the door was firmly closed.

"Yeah sure, what's on the menu today then?" Jack joked.

"Raw steak if you're interested." Abi humoured him.

"Oh yum!" Jack said picking up the other bucket, which held the unappetizing slices of steak. He followed Abi down the rows of cages, looking in every one. He was interested perhaps a little too much at what some of these creatures where.

Abi took the lead and showed Jack how it was best to feed a carnivorous animal, just in case they preferred human meat to steak. Following fashion, Jack picked up a still and tactfully placed a slice of steak onto it and wiggled it through the bars; a hungry mouth eagerly snatched the meat from the stick, almost taking the stick with it as it did so.

"Gees, that almost took me with it!" Jack exclaimed after he had taken the stick safely away from the creature.

"I did warn you!" Abi shouted back to him, she was a few cages ahead of him tenderly attending her favourite creature in the carnivorous section, the Microvenator, a four foot dinosaur whose intelligence rating was one Abi was very impressed with.

Jack, finding the creatures he was feeding a little too scary for him, wandered over to Abi to see how she was coping. She was poking the stick with the steak attached through the bars but the creature was ignoring it.

"I don't think it likes steak." Jack observed as Abi retracted the stick from the cage.

"Well it was worth a go, never quite sure with Microvenator's." Abi said putting the steak back in the bucket.

"What are we going to give him, is there anything else left in the storeroom?" Jack asked heading to what he believed to be the storeroom, which turned out to be an office.

Abi, however, walked into the correct room and started to search the stock, starting from the top shelve. She smiled when she became aware that Jack had eventually found the right room and had come to join her in her searches.

"Hey, what's this, in this bucket?" Jack asked picking the bucket of the shelve level to him and tipping it slightly so Abi could see the contents.

"Dinosaur meat." Abi replied. Jack put the bucket down quickly rubbing his hands on his shirt.

"ERH!" he cried.

"Some dinosaurs do eat other dinosaurs Jack, it's a fact. In fact…" Abi picked up the bucket that Jack had dropped and disappeared out of the room. Curious, Jack followed.

Replacing the steak back in the bucket, Abi used the stick to pick up a piece of the dinosaur meat. She brought it over to the Microvenator's cage and fed it through the bars. The creature's nose twitched and it turned towards the meat. In light padding steps it came up to the meat and took a nibble. It liked the taste. Slowly the creature began to tease the meat of the stick and onto the floor, where it then proceeded to take big chunks of it and swallow it whole. Abi looked at Jack and they both smiled.

Crystal sat at the ARC's main anomaly detector/computer; she was trying to write up the mess that Connor took as a report. It was a very good job that she could understand his handwriting for even she was struggling to make out what some of the words said. She knew that Connor hated writing reports but there really was no need for the lack of legible handwriting on the draft that was inevitably going to end up with Crystal to be rewritten, in proper English.

"''Ere what are you doing on my computer?" Connor asked Crystal as he past her, doing a fetch and carry task for Cutter.

"It's not your computer, Connor!" Crystal said without taking her eyes off the screen.

"Erh I invented it therefore my computer." Connor told her walking towards the stairs.

"I think you'll find that you invented for the ARC so therefore it is the ARC's computer." Crystal said glancing back at him.

"I invented it, it is in the ARC's use and I need to get this thing to Cutter, so cut it out." Connor seemed a little annoyed.

"It's the ARC's, and when are you going to make your handwriting legible?" Crystal had paused typing while she tried to figure out what the next word was meant to be.

"It's not that bad!"

"Oh yeah do you want to try it?" Crystal asked he was really getting on her nerves now.

"I've got work to do!"

"So have I, and look what I'm doing, your work!"

"Well don't do it then!" Connor shouted climbing the stairs.

"Maybe I won't then maybe you'll see how much I do for you sometimes!" Crystal hit the exit button and threw the illegible writing on the floor for when Connor could be bothered to find it. Connor continued up the stairs oblivious to Crystal's actions.

Crystal stormed off into a direction unknown. She felt so annoyed, angry and confused all at the same time. She had never argued with Connor, not as big as argument as that had been. Tears began to form in her eyes as she walked down the corridor, she didn't plan to go anywhere, just walk.

Steven had just finished putting the gun back and locking the armoury, when he noticed Crystal coming down the corridor.

"Hey, Crystal!" he said cheerily but then stopped when Crystal didn't answer.

"Crystal?" Steven said gently. "What's wrong?" Crystal looked up at Steven, her movement jerky –as if she hadn't seen him, jerky.

"Connor." She said almost inaudibly, she wiped a tear away from her cheek.

"But you're crying." Steven didn't get it, how could Connor be the reason for what was wrong (Crystal's longest friend and companion, the one that she had begun to love as more than just a friend) and she was crying about it?

"Me and Connor just had a really big argument." Crystal explained.

"Oh, first?" Steven asked.

"Yeah." Crystal replied.

Connor dropped the paper onto Cutter's desk, making him jump. Eagerly Cutter rummaged through the papers until he found what he was looking for.

"Thanks Connor, now I can get to work!" Connor turned away without even so much as acknowledging his thank-you.

"Connor?" Cutter was concerned, he had never seen Connor look so down, it was a look that neither suited him physically or mentally. Connor heard his name and glanced up at Cutter.

"Are you alright?" Cutter pried. Connor tilted his head and looked up to the ceiling, squinting one eye.

"I think I just had an argument with crystal." He said so plainly without a hint of it hurting him (although by the way he had just walked in the room and didn't immediately respond to Cutter's thanks, Cutter knew that it had troubled him quite a bit). Connor wandered off out the room before Cutter could say anything remotely comforting.

The subject of his two colleagues rest on Cutter's mind heavily as he tried to get his head around some of various theories regarding the anomalies that where presented on the pages that he had just sent Connor out to get. He was always concerned when members of the team fell out, it proved difficult for the rest of the team to carry on and work. In this sort of job it required everyone to work very closely together and one falling out could provoke havoc with the smooth running that dealing with anomalies needed to be handled like.

It worried him even more that it was Connor and Crystal fighting. He had always thought they got on so well that a fight was virtually impossible, but apparently he was wrong. It wasn't even like he knew what to do to compel them to make up. He hoped that it would sort itself out and returned to his theories.

The loud beeping noise thundered through everyone's head as they marched down to the main room to discover what the anomaly detector was finding.

Connor was at the detector when Steven arrived in the room. Crystal was sitting over by the laptop fiddling with what looked like a game of solitaire. Steven sighed, it was so unlike them to argue yet both were too adamant that the other should apologize and so they had resulted in not forgiving each other.

Abi and Jack where next to walk in the room, Abi immediately noticed there was something amiss although couldn't quite put her finger on it, but Jack could.

"It's a bit silent in here what's wrong with those two?" He asked Steven pointing individually to Connor and his sister.

"Don't ask!" Steven told him and walked away. They were all waiting for Cutter to come in so they could get on with finding the anomaly.

There was a moment of awkward silence as they took their places around the detector and waited.

Cutter stormed in, purpose set in his walk he strode to the detector, aware that Crystal was not joining in.

"Where is it Connor?" he asked, Connor typed something and then looked up at Cutter.

"I honestly don't know!" he said taking his hands of the computer and raising them as if a gun was being pointed at him.

"Alright, Connor, go and get a hand-held one." Connor stood up and left the room mumbling to himself.

"Crystal?" Cutter indicated. Crystal shut the laptop lid and walked over to the detector, she observed the screen.

"West bank, 42nd street, Eastleigh." She told them, Cutter thanked her.

"But… But… how?" Jack was looking from the screen to his sister attempting to understand how she had just been able to do that when Connor had said he hadn't got a clue.

"Connor knows places as co-ordinates; I know them as the actual names." Crystal explained to her little brother also enlightening Abi and Steven in the doing so.

Cutter retrieved his coat, indicating for the others to do the same, although only Steven actually had a coat that was in the ARC.

Connor came back into the room holding his version of the hand-held anomaly detector. He noticed that everyone seemed to be moving around and getting ready to leave and he frowned, they didn't even know where they were going yet.

"Come on Connor, get your coat, it's in Eastleigh, west bank, 42nd street." Cutter told him.

How did he know this? Connor looked around the room looking for another hand-held anomaly detector or some other equipment that could have possibly told Cutter the information. Nothing. Then his eyes fell on Crystal, he knew she was able to say the name of the place with only one glance at it, it had to have been her.

Taking orders Connor grabbed his jacket, picked up the laptop (just in case) and followed the others out of the room.

_Ok pretty please review as, as of yet I have received NO reviews for this story and would desperately like some!_


	4. through the anomaly

Chapter 4

The team pulled up in the car park adjacent to where the anomaly was situated. Jack was still revelling in the fact he had been allowed to sit in the front seat of Connor's car, he hadn't realised that the only reason he was allowed that privilege was because Connor and Crystal weren't speaking to each other.

The team walked out of the car park, heading to the anomaly, guns and detectors held in a less visible place so as they passed people they didn't look to suspicious. On the people aspect, the team where quite relieved to find the anomaly in a well secluded area, away from the prying eyes of onlookers who knew nothing of the dangerous element to the situation.

Jack felt awkward between Connor and Crystal, he tried to make conversation but neither of them where speaking so it faded into nothing.

They reached the anomaly, it didn't look so out of place in the sunny afternoon, in amiss the grass and bushes. Jack couldn't help but notice that there was no sign of a creature.

"What happens if there's no creature to catch?" he asked Crystal.

"Sit." She replied.

"What, just sit and wait?" Jack asked bemused. She nodded.

Abi and Steven plonked themselves on the grass, Cutter contemplated it but felt it was his duty to be ready for anything that might come out of the anomaly and stayed standing, Connor joined him.

"Oh I hate these types of anomalies! When are we going to get something that shuts them automatically?" Abi complained, looking at Connor as she spoke. He had been working on this project for quite some time now.

"Abi give him a chance, inventing technology isn't easy you know!" Cutter came to Connor's rescue.

"Yeah but he's been working on it for months and we haven't had any updates recently!"

"We've been through an anomaly and everything changed, you actually don't know if Connor can find the equipment or whether or not he had even started it in this dimension!" Steven scolded her.

Meanwhile Jack was wandering around the anomaly; he was intrigued by its colours and was attempting to touch what looked like shards of glass. Crystal, who had been staring of in the opposite direction, turned round to find her brother placing his hand through the anomaly.

"Jack!" she exclaimed, making him jump and miss his footing, sending him tumbling through the very thing she had tried to prevent him going through.

Crystal began running towards the anomaly.

"Crystal, Crystal…" Cutter warned her, before she did anything drastic. Abi started to run towards it too.

"NO!" Cutter shouted as Abi disappeared into the anomaly, Steven was following her.

"Steven don't even… arg!" Cutter had mentioned it too late, for Steven had already disappeared into the glittering mass of colour followed very shortly by Crystal.

"Crystal!" Connor exclaimed, Cutter tried to hold him back but lost his grip. Having lost most of his team he saw no point in staying on the other side while they were all in the either the prehistoric time or somewhere in the future unless he went in through the anomaly he would never know which it was.

Cutter sighed and stepped calmly through the glowing anomaly to another time altogether.

Jack landed on his back, winding himself, he groaned as he attempted to lift himself of the ground. It hurt really badly and he scolded himself for allowing himself to get so close to the anomaly. He looked around him trying to figure out where he was, there where houses so he guessed he was in the future but it looked so dark and dreary, that he could hardly believe that this was the inevitable future of his home town, his home planet.

Something made a scratchy noise that turned into a low moan. Jack forced himself off the ground; he looked around properly, his heart racing. What was it? Where was it? He felt to open in the middle of the deserted street, so still keeping his eyes roving round the area, Jack found himself a hiding place between two old boxes and watched in shock as the grotesque creature came into view. Jack held his breath as the creature came nearer and then finally passed by. He relaxed but didn't come out from his hiding place that was until he saw Abi.

Abi entered through the anomaly, she paused to glance around her, take in the area and the situation. It looked a bit deserted but she didn't see any immediate danger, she then looked purposefully for Jack. She had seen him fall, she knew that he was here and he couldn't have got that far as it had been a matter of less than 2 minutes between his entry and hers.

"ABI!" Jack shouted, having noticed that there was something coming closer to her. Abi whipped her body round following the voice, she casually walked towards Jack's hiding place (although she was unaware this was where he was hiding).

"ABI! BEHIND YOU!" Jack shouted again, Abi looked round; she spotted what Jack was on about. A large creature about 3 times her size, incredibly ugly and scary at the same time. Luckily it seemed to be preoccupied with something else (or it was extremely deaf, for Jack's shouts where not ones to be called quiet.) and hadn't paid any attention to Abi so she continued towards Jack in the similar manner that she had been just a little quieter.

She had almost reached Jack when Steven entered the anomaly. He spotted Abi immediately and started to run to catch up with her. The creature apparently was not as deaf as he made out to be for he clearly heard Steven and began following him at an almost equal pace. Jack noticed the creature and pulled Abi up they sprinted away from Steven and the creature.

"Hey! Wait up!" Steven shouted taking extra steps to try and keep up with their pace.

"Creature alert!" Jack shouted back, making Steven glance back and realise what he was on about and run a little faster.

Out of the anomaly Crystal emerged, looking anxiously around for her brother or Abi or Steven who had gone before her. No one was in view, nothing but rows of deserted houses which looked vaguely familiar. Crystal was vaguely aware of someone else coming through the anomaly behind her, she ignored it and started to walk down the empty street.

Connor caught Crystal's arm, she couldn't just go running off without anyone with her. She turned round glaring at Connor.

"Wait for Cutter." Connor told her, not letting go of her arm for fear that she wouldn't listen to him.

They only had a moment to wait before Cutter had joined them.

"Where is everyone?" he asked but it was pretty clear that neither Connor nor Crystal had an answer to that question either.

"Well we can start looking over there can't we?" Cutter said heading off in the opposite direction to the three colleges who had come before them. Reluctantly Crystal followed Cutter and Connor as they began walking down the desolate street, their footsteps echoing in the dead silence.

They had been walking for a while, in silence, Crystal on one side of Cutter and Connor on the other. Cutter was beginning to feel agitated, it was clear that they had lost Abi, Steven and Jack but it didn't help when neither of the two people he was with weren't saying a word to anyone it did not help his flow of ideas as he was consciously worried about their relationship and why they weren't talking to each other.

"Look, whatever happened between you two can't you just forget about it… it's not going to help the situation, we can't go about trying to find people when we can't work as a team because you two won't talk!" Cutter exclaimed getting a little annoyed with them both.

Only Crystal seemed to be affected by Cutter's little speech. She looked up at Cutter and then across to Connor, who looked the other way, avoiding her gaze. He still hadn't forgiven her and it would take a long time before he would.

Cutter sighed. In general he was proud of his colleges but on occasions like this he wished they would grow up and accept the fact that one of them was wrong and forgive each other. But that was the consequences of hiring people straight out of school. Connor and Crystal had joined Cutter as soon as they left school, Abi joined later after working in a zoo for a few months; Steven had been abroad for a year or so when Cutter had decided to involve him in his investigations.

Jack, Abi and Steven had found refuge in a deserted building and all sighed with relief as the creature sailed by them in pursuit of three invisible people. After all three had finally caught their breath they began to take in their surroundings. The building was dark, damp and cold, yet they all felt it somewhat familiar.

Abi began searching around, trying to get a clue of what the building used to be. She turned over several boxes but they were so old that the writing had faded and the boxes where almost falling apart as she touched them.

Steven began searching in the higher shelves and cupboards; they were relatively empty apart from the odd spoon or mug. Whoever left this place must have taken their belongings all with them to another place.

Jack was looking everywhere else that either Abi or Steven hadn't checked: Corners, lower cupboards, any other nook and cranny the other two hadn't covered. No one found anything that showed them what the building used for before the owners deserted.

Abi was bent over a drawer when she came across some paperwork; removing it from the drawer she began to study it. It was computer written and looked very similar to the sort of paperwork she found lying around in the ARC.

"Hey! Steven… come look at this!" Abi called, knowing Steven would be better at deciphering what the document was trying to tell her. She felt someone behind her and immediately thought it was Steven but then she heard Steven's footsteps coming to the door, Abi then thought of Jack but she could hear Steven talking to him telling him to come with him. Abi's heart began to pound, who was behind her and what were they doing there? Abi began to turn her head but found she was knocked out unconscious, she fell to the floor. Someone bent down next to Abi and clicked a device over her, the figure then got up and left the room.

Steven arrived at the door.

"What is it Abi? Abi!" Steven spotted Abi's limp form on the floor and immediately ran over to her. Jack arrived just as Steven knelt down on the floor.

"What happened?" Jack asked, rushing to Steven's side.

"I don't know." Steven said honestly, he knew Jack liked answers given to him straight and because he was new to everything he kind of expected that someone would be able to explain it to him, but Steven had no answer for him.

"Look, go and see if you can find a first aid kit or something." Steven told Jack, it would keep him off his back for a while as he tried to revive Abi and then he could bandage up anything that she had injured without having to spend time looking for it.

Jack got up obediently and left the room in search of something that looked similar to a first aid box. It was slightly dark outside the room and he never noticed who the strange figure was who render him unconscious and click something over him.

"Hey Jack, have you found it yet?" Steven shouted from where he was, still crouched beside Abi. No answer.

"Jack?" Steven shouted again this time he was more cautious and listened carefully for Jack's voice to answer him. Still nothing.

Beginning to worry, Steven stood up and walked slowly to the door and called Jack's name once more. By this time Steven wasn't expecting an answer, it just came out, just in case. Very carefully Steven began walking through the hallway, then he found Jack's body on the floor. Steven's heart skipped a beat. What was going on, how come two people were now unconscious yet no sign of anything that could have caused it? Steven crouched down next to Jack, he felt that somebody else was in the hallway. It most certainly couldn't have been Jack because he was right in front of him out cold, it couldn't have been Abi for there was no chance she could have recovered that quickly or quietly. Steven stood up again and walked ever so slowly down the hall.

He stopped. He was getting the sensation that, whoever it was, was very close to him, behind him in fact. Steven slowly turned his head, then his body and then his legs followed.

"Oh my god! What are you doing here?" Steven was shocked at who he saw, but only for a while as he too found himself on the cold stone floor, conscious of something clicking and then blank.

_Ok pretty please some reviews, I know that there have been people reading this!_


	5. separation: memory loss

**Chapter 5**

Connor had wondered away from Cutter and Crystal. He hadn't realised that he had but when he turned round he found them gone. He had been lost in thought and hadn't been aware that they had gone down a side road, and he carried on up the road believing that was where all three were heading in the same direction.

Connor didn't like being in a strange place, alone and lost. He wished he'd paid more attention and made sure he had stuck with Cutter, just like he advised Crystal. She was the reason he hadn't being paying attention, he had been thinking about her, wondering if he had been a little harsh on her but contradicting himself by saying that she had been hard on him.

Connor began looking around him, taking in his surroundings trying to jog his memory and see if he recognized anything that he had been past. Nothing immediately took his attention. But as he kept walking he had the strangest feeling that he had been here before, not this era but definitely this place. Eventually he forced himself to stop and stare at a building, hoping that it would give him an idea to where he was. Nothing enlightened him.

Cutter found himself wandering down the road alone. Somewhere along the line both his colleagues had disappeared down another street, probably at different times but he hadn't noticed. He had been more preoccupied at trying to figure out where they all were. He was still none the wiser to the team's precise location but he knew he had a duty to find his colleagues and bring them safely back home.

Cutter turned himself around and retraced his steps; he was now on the search for any side roads that either Connor or Crystal could have gone down.

Crystal cursed herself for losing both Connor and Cutter. She had never intended to leave Cutter but had been concerned that Connor had sauntered off down some street, ignoring his own advice and she had paused in the hope that she would spot him somewhere but in the process lost sight of Cutter.

Now she was walking down some street that she had no a clue where, in the hope that eventually she would bump into someone. Anyone would be nice, for the deserted silence was beginning to scare Crystal ever so slightly. She turned the corner and walked down the next street, she tried to recognise it but every street seemed the same and so nothing really stood out as being familiar apart from maybe the character stood staring at that tall building.

Crystal sighed, it was a big relief to find Connor standing there just when she thought she was completely lost and alone. Calmly she walked over to where Connor was standing. She was about to say his name and get his attention, when she felt something hit her head and she fell, dizzily to the ground. Something clicked above her and then she blacked out.

On hearing the clicking sound Connor turned his head, shocked to see Crystal lying on the ground but even more shocked when he saw who was standing over her. Connor gasped, the figure looked up and as fast as lightening was by his side treating him with the same treatment that Crystal had received. The click noise happened again and the figure replaced the device back in its rightful place, in the depths of the black leather jacket's pocket.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Cutter yelled on seeing both his colleagues fall to the floor. He sprinted over to the one individual that had committed the crime and was now left the only one standing. Cutter put his whole weight into tackling the character to the floor, they struggled for a while. Neither wanting to give up, and neither showing any signs of lacking, the both were equally matched.

Cutter fought with all his might, defending his colleagues and himself, he didn't care how much he got hurt but he was not putting up with somebody harming his friends.

They carried on for a few seconds more, as Cutter began to lose his original strength and was eventually rendered unconscious. For a moment the figure paused, breathless then taking the device out of the leather jacket and clicking it over cutter's helpless body.

After some silent debate, the figure decided to drag Cutter first, as he was the one more likely to stir first and it would not work if he was in the same place as he fell. Grabbing both his arms, it was a hard task to drag him along the road to join his other colleagues in the semi-familiar building.

Crystal's eye's flickered open. She lay there for a moment unsure of where she was and feeling a little dizzy. After a few minutes she began to hoist herself into a sitting position, she surveyed the area. It was dreary, yet still obviously daytime. She looked down towards her feet wondering why they felt numb; no answer was given apart from maybe the cold wind that was circulating around the area. Something caught her eye and she followed it. Connor was lying just about 3 feet away from her, unconscious. How he could have got there she had no clue but then she was entirely sure how she had got here either.

Dragging herself up, Crystal moved herself towards Connor. She tested his temperature and his pulse and then began to try and wake him gently.

Meanwhile, the figure had returned from the task of lumbering Cutter along the street and into the large, once important, building, and had come back to take Crystal and Connor to the same place. On seeing Crystal moving about, the figure kept their distance, seeing that their plan had failed, the figure crept silently out of view.

Crystal walked a little way to the nearest building to stretch out her legs. She didn't go too far because she didn't want to leave Connor on his own while he was still unconscious.

Connor flickered his eyelids; he felt extremely uncomfortable and was certain that this couldn't possibly be his bed as he originally thought. He tried to move his arm but found that it was tucked underneath him. He wriggled his dead arm out from underneath him and began rubbing the life back into it. When he could feel all his limbs, he began to attempt to get himself up. It took several goes but he did it. His eyes immediately caught sight of Crystal, he still remembered the argument, although that was the only thing he could seem to remember, everything after that was a haze.

"Hey, Crystal." Connor ventured.

Crystal whipped her head round; she was glad to see that Connor was alright and unhurt. She so badly wanted to run up to him and hug him but she was still upset with him and something stopped her.

"Connor, are you ok, not hurt or anything?" Crystal asked her eyes staring in Connor's green ones.

"Not a bruise on me!" Connor reassured her. Crystal nodded. She didn't know what else to say and that seemed to sum it up. She began to walk away from him, down the street. Connor followed.

They walked for a while in silence each not knowing what to say to each other. They both felt that they ought to say something but nothing came out.

"Where are we?" Connor asked Crystal. It was the first thing that either of them had said for a long time so it startled Crystal.

"I don't know I thought that you might but obviously not." Crystal replied.

"Crystal. I can't remember how we even got here let alone our precise location!" Connor exclaimed.

"Neither can I." Crystal said. It came as a little shock that she was unable to say exactly how they got there. She was usually the one who remembered every detail on how they ended up where they were or what happened at a certain time in a certain place but she couldn't remember anything about their arrival in this odd scene where there was no sign of life. Yet she could still visualise clearly the argument that she had had with Connor.

As if to break to the awkward silence, a loud noise sounded from behind them. They turned round searching for a cause of the noise. Nothing within their view seemed to have caused it but then Connor noticed a large black shadow forming on the wall that was opposite the corner.

Lolloping around the corner came a tall four-legged creature, grey in colour and knocking down everything that came within a foot of its way. They stared at it while shocked at is similarity to the behaviour of a fox. It would try to stuff its nose into a bin and find it had got stuck and then it would have to shake it off. But the one thing it did not have similar to a fox was its ability to look cute, in fact if anything this creature looked dangerous and if they were to guess, they had no doubt it would in fact be willing to tear them limb from limb. But it was ok so as long as it didn't see them.

Connor and Crystal stayed as still as they could, watching the creature as it got dangerously near to them. They knew that eventually they would have to run for it.

The creature's head was turned to one side but as it turned it back it saw them.

There was a moment when nothing moved. Not the creature, nor Connor or Crystal. Then the creature, having decided the two humans were not welcome, began to stir and walk towards them.

Connor and Crystal began to walk backwards, their eyes fixed on the creature ready to leg it on the first sign of it charging for them.

The creature's little legs started to work faster and faster until it was running. Taking this hint, Crystal grabbed Connor and they began to run for it. Luckily for them the creature had small legs and a considerable weight to carry on them and so it was easy to put a large distance between them and it.

After some time of running and when they believed that they had enough of a head start to allow for a while to catch their breath they stopped. Breathing heavily it took a moment to adjust to the surroundings and to be calm enough to take it all in.

Crystal was the first to become really aware of her surroundings and how familiar that one house looked on the left side of the road. When she could she walked over to it and took a long stare hoping that a name or something would come to her so she could identify why this one house looked so familiar.

Then it hit her. No wonder it had seemed familiar.

"Connor, come look at this." Crystal called to him, he was going over to her anyway having caught his breath. Crystal pointed to the house, Connor followed her hand and gazed at the building.

"Does it seem familiar to you?" Crystal asked.

"Yeah, I think so…" Connor was having the same trouble with remembering as Crystal had been.

"It's…" Crystal stopped. She heard something fall over and then the sound of the creature groaning. Connor heard it too. Leaving the sentence dangling in the air and the –now identified- familiarity of that one house, they ran for their lives, for the second time that day.

It was dark and cold. Jack shivered as he was awoken by a cold breeze drifting over his body. He tried to find the covers and pull it back round him so he could go back to sleep but he found nothing. He sat up, his eyes adjusting to the dark, he knew for a fact he wasn't at home. This wasn't a bed; it was a stone cold floor. No wonder he was cold.

Slowly Jack managed to lift himself off the floor and through the dim-lighted room take a vague look at his surroundings. He thought, if he squinted hard enough, that he could make out three more sleeping figures.

He let his eyes adjust more to the dark and then he fumbled along the wall until he came to a switch. Jack took a big breath in and then switched the light on. To his surprise it worked. Marvelling at it for a moment, he then turned himself around to see if his eyes where deceiving him.

There in front of him lay his three colleges, Steven and Abi looked like they had been carefully laid out, but Cutter looked as though he had been placed haphazardly in between Abi and where Jack had been lying. Cutter's hand had almost been touching Jack but due to the darkness and the image he had in his head as he woke, Jack had not noticed how close it had been.

Jack knelt down and attempted to shift Cutter's body away from Abi, despite being smaller and weighing considerably less than Cutter it wasn't such a difficult task. Arranging Cutter in a comfortable position, Jack returned his focus to Abi. He began rubbing her hands trying to get the blood flowing back through her body at its correct rate. When that didn't work, he tried slapping her cheeks, she stirred. Her hand moved trying to grab Jack's arm and prevent him from hitting her.

"Stop, stop." She mumbled as her eyelids flickered open.

"Abi! Abi it's Jack." Jack tried to make Abi acknowledge him properly. Carefully she sat up, gently taking in her surroundings. Jack was obviously the main thing that she came to notice.

"Where are we?" Abi asked looking around, her eyes falling on Cutter. "Cutter? Is he alright?" it was Abi's turn to revive Cutter. She chose a different method altogether in attempting to wake Cutter: she grabbed him by the shoulders and began shaking him violently. When that didn't work she let go and sat back on her heels.

"Abi, try slapping him." Jack suggested.

"Jack!" Abi exclaimed looking back at him in alarm.

"What? it worked for you!" Jack defended himself. He stood up.

"Look let me show you…" he stepped one foot over Steven's leg and forgot about the other one and tripped. He fell on Cutter waking him up fully and Steven stirred.

Abi pulled Jack up and they helped Cutter to get up too. Jack turned to Steven who had now opened his eyes and had felt the same strange feeling of not having a clue of where he was.

"Want a hand there mate?" Jack asked, literally holding out his hand for Steven to take.

"Er thanks Jack." Steven said taking the offer and pulling himself up.

With all four of them now standing, they took their time to look around them. For a moment they just looked then Cutter began to move around, pick things up and take a good look at them, the others followed.

Steven went over to the sideboard, he ran his hand over the surface and was disgusted to find his hand absolutely immersed in dust.

"Urg! It's extremely dusty in here!" Steven announced as if they all hadn't noticed before.

Jack sneezed and Cutter, Abi and Steven turned sharply around, looking at him intimidatingly. Jack felt himself shrink under their scrutinizing eyes.

"I've got an allergy to dust mites." Jack defended himself. Cutter and Steven sighed and then turned back to what they were looking at, Abi smiled at Jack, feeling his humiliation.

In silence they continued searching around, they were all looking for something that would tell them where they were.

Abi found a broken laptop and was reminding of something.

"Has no one else realized that we're missing two people?" she asked the others. The all looked at her. Clearly trying to work out what she was suggesting.

"Jack come on; don't tell me you've forgotten your sister?" Abi gaped at Jack. Jack suddenly went wide-eyed with fright.

"Oh my gosh…Crystal!" Jack exclaimed.

"Connor…" Cutter added realising that he too was missing from the group.

"How could we forget those two?" Steven said equally as worried as Jack was and Cutter was growing to be.

The four of them stood motionless, each shocked at how easily their minds were failing them. They were all struggling to remember where they had last seen their two colleagues and why they hadn't stayed together. No one had a clue.

"Come on let's find a way outa here and try and find them." Cutter said, they all began to get into gear and move. Cutter tried the door, he was pretty certain that it would be locked but he just checked and of course he was right.

The team halted. What now? They were locked in a room with no means to escape.

"Whoever locked us in here didn't want us getting out." Steven remarked.

Abi was scrounging around looking for anything useful that could be used to open the door, a pin, a crowbar or … that would do nicely.

"Whoever locked us in here didn't think all too hard about what they left in the room." Abi commented picking up a handful of keys.

Going through the set of keys one by one and trying them all, eventually after about seven tries the lock suddenly clicked open and they all sighed with relief and filed through the doorway.

Crystal pulled Connor into an alleyway. They kept close to the wall and watched as the creature sailed passed them in pursuit of what was now absolutely nothing. When they were both sure that the place was clear, they looked at each other, sighing in relief and hugged each other.

"Were you thinking that it was Abi's house back there?" Crystal asked him, sinking down to the ground to rest her legs.

Something had caught Connor's eye, so he nodded in response to Crystal question.

"Good, I'm glad I wasn't seeing things." Crystal said. Connor walked towards the house on the other side of the street.

"Connor?" Crystal asked standing up and following him, trying to see what had caught his eye. She followed his gaze and titled her head, frowning. She knew she had seen that house before, but there was nothing else that went with that analysis.

"I think… I think it's Steven's house." Connor said still staring hard at it.

"Check the number." Crystal said, the house, the more she looked at it, was beginning to become familiar and the number would probably determine whether they were right or not.

Connor walked through the gate and a little way up the path before he could actually say what the number was.

"20." He called back.

"It is Steven's house, but then if this is Steven's house then…" Crystal began to jog down the road and Connor quickly caught up with her as she came to a halt at the end of the road.

"Then that's Cutter's house." Crystal said pointing towards the house on the other side of the road. Connor instantly recognised the end terraced house, with its distinct emerald green edging. Apart from his own home, Cutter's house was the only one he could never forget, the amount of times he had gone there for work and none related appointments were countless.

"We must be in the future, look Cutter wouldn't have changed the windows, he liked them too much." Connor said knowing the house so well that he could pick up on the one signal detail that had changed since his last visit.

"If you think about it, we could navigate our way to our house." Crystal suggested.

It took some adjusting before the team could carry on, there was no sign of a working light switch and they were walking through the corridor in darkness.

Abi, Steven and Jack jumped when they were suddenly immersed in light. Cutter had found a torch in his pocket and without warning switched it on.

"Cutter! Thanks for the blinding light!" Abi said covering her eyes as she faced Cutter.

"Sorry." Cutter said pointing the torch downwards.

"Go on light in front please." Steven said letting Cutter push past him and lead them through the darkness.

Steven came to a halted in the middle of the corridor. His hand went to his head and a memory flashed before his eyes. He had been there, someone else had been there. He had recognized that person but he couldn't put his finger on it now. That had been the last place he had stood before blacking out.

"You alright Steven?" Cutter asked they had all watched him as he stopped and his expression suddenly changed.

"Someone did this to us, someone we all know." Steven said looking straight at Cutter.

"Who?" Cutter asked assuming he was about to enlighten them all.

"I don't remember." Steven replied looking very apologetic.

_Ok don't think I don't know that people have been reading this so there is no reason why there isn't any reviews so come on hit that button!_


	6. Realization

**Chapter 6**

Following Crystal's theory, they had managed to actually find their home. It was a sight to see, with the windows boarded up and the house basically falling apart but it was still recognizably their home. The door was about the only thing that looked reasonably intact but as they got closer they noticed that that too was rotting away.

They stood for a while just staring at their home. It was strange to think that they lived in the very house they were looking at. It was a little heart-breaking to think that this was how that house would end up in the future. Crystal linked her arm with Connor's and they went up to the front door.

Everything was silent; the only sound that could be heard was Connor and Crystal's footsteps as they walked up the path. It was too silent.

They were ¾ of the way up the path when all of a sudden their way was blocked by a thin grey creature which resembled a pterodactyl. It screeched and hissed at Connor and Crystal who were still trying to determine where it had come from. Connor took the lead and started to take slow steps back from the creature, giving it some space.

Crystal held out her hand, unlinking her arm from Connor's and getting a little closer to the creature. She was using a technique that she found most creatures, if they were going to be friendly, would take to and follow her. But this creature was having none of it. It seemed to do the opposite of what the she was trying to get him to do. It flapped its wings and squawked loudly. Connor grabbed Crystal's arm and tried to pull her back.

"Your irritating it, leave it." He told her. Crystal whipped her head to Connor, glaring at him because he was holding her arm too tight. The creature squawked again and flapped it's wings harder, so when Crystal turned back she found the creature hovering off the ground and flying towards them.

They were trying to run backwards down the path, the creature advancing on them chasing them out of the grounds that led to their house.

Connor tripped on the last little step at the end of the path, he brought Crystal down with him and she landed on top of him. The creature stopped. It perched on the step Connor had fallen over and stayed, watching them as they struggled to get up.

Crystal rolled herself away from Connor and then used the wall to help herself up. Connor did the same.

Connor experimented trying to get closer to the first step but the creature wouldn't let him. It squawked, flapped its wings and, when he got close enough, bit him.

"Well I don't think we're going to get any further then this." He commented, cradling his bitten finger.

"Come on let's get away from this."

Cutter was the first to emerge from the building, followed closely by the rest of them. For a moment they all had to cover their eyes for the sunlight, although not very bright, blinded them. They had been in the dark for a while now –apparently only one light in the whole building was still in function- and had only just found a way out onto the street.

When their eyes adjusted to the light, the four friends looked out onto the street ahead of them all thinking the same thing:

What now?

Cutter walked away from them into the middle of the street. He looked left and then right trying to determine which way was the best way to go. He decided right.

He beckoned the others to follow him, they did, not seeing any better option.

Cutter, Steven, Abi and Jack walked right down Buswell Street. Had any of them looked at the place name sign, they might have remembered something.

If only they had waited a few more seconds in that same spot. If they had they wouldn't be searching aimlessly through unrecognizable streets.

Connor was almost dragging Crystal along; he was much faster than her and as they had their arms linked Crystal was struggling to keep with Connor's pace. She was ever so glad when he finally stopped and she was allowed to catch up with him.

Leaving Buswell Street, Connor had eventually stopped in what on first glance looked like a courtyard, but on second glance the faded white lines indicated that this had once been a car-park. Connor frowned, looking around him.

"This is my spot. This is where I park my car." He said. Pointing downwards.

Crystal sighed. Sometimes, just sometimes he could be very agitating.

"What?" she asked having not a clue what he was going on about.

"I always park here…" Connor said pointing once again to the floor where he was stood and then walked over to what would have been the space next to him.

"And Cutter always parks here." He said stopping in the middle of the rectangle before moving away from it back through 'his' space.

"And Abi parks there." He added pointing to the space on the other side of him and then walking through it anyway.

"And Steven always parks here." Connor concluded standing in the middle of the fourth parking space.

Crystal was beginning to understand where this was going. She knew that Connor had a thing about parking in the same spot each time he used a car park and at work that habit had washed off on the others who also parked in set places among the ARC's car park.

Which meant that they were close to the ARC.

Crystal turned her head expectantly. Yes the building was there. It looked smaller then she recalled and it had some missing windows but it was recognizable as the ARC.

Connor was already one step ahead of Crystal and was already heading for the ARC's main entrance. So by the time Crystal got there he was trying the door and finding that it was locked.

Frustrated at it not opening when he told it to, Connor tried to force it open when Crystal reminded him of something:

"You have a key."

"Oh yeah." Connor said trying to pass it off that he had already aware of that. Reaching into his pocket Connor pulled out a bunch of keys, one which he was sure fitted that lock.

Bracing himself for the door to be stiff and hard to push, Connor got into a good stance and then pushed with all his might, falling head first through the open door.

Crystal couldn't help but laugh. So as not to trample on him, Crystal lightly pushed the other door but found it wouldn't budge. She tried pushing it harder but no matter how hard or soft she pushed it wouldn't budge.

Connor pushed himself up and looked at Crystal, frowning.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"The door won't budge." Crystal answered also frowning. By both their reckoning the door should be able to open now that Connor had unlocked the first door (it was one of those double doors where only one had a handle/lock.) and so they were struggling to work out why it wasn't.

Standing up, Connor checked every part of the door to see what was wrong with it. There was nothing technically wrong with it apart from it now had a lock mechanism at the very top of the door. it was connected to a wire which was visible all the way down the side of the door and along the edge of the wall, a clear sign that it was not Connor's creation and had been somebody else's after-thought.

Connor started to trace the wire with his finger.

"I want to find out where this is coming from." He explained to Crystal, although she had already gathered that was what he was doing.

"Alright carry on." Crystal said not too bothered about what Connor was doing, although she did want to know why the door had suddenly gained a lock.

She walked behind Connor as he used his hand to follow the wire along the wall and down the stairs. She felt a little silly standing and walking behind Connor when he was crouched so low to the ground. She felt she should be doing something yet there was nothing else for her to do.

The wire took them to the basement and then it disappeared through another door that they had never known existed until now. Connor tried to prise it open but it seemed to be screwed shut.

Crystal looked round for anything that they could use to open the door and fell upon a tool box not too far away from where they were; in fact she could reach it without really having to move from where she was standing.

It didn't take long for her to find a suitable screwdriver and only a little longer for Connor to unscrew all six of the screws and remove the plastic casing. Peering into the box, Connor noticed the wire led into a new set of boards which by the looks of it had only been fixed in during this week. It was that new. Which meant somebody had been in the derelict building when they had no right to be. Which then meant that there was someone else apart from the ARC team in this futuristic, supposedly human-free, landscape.

Connor looked up at Crystal. It had both hit them and now they were feeling apprehensive, what if they were still in here?

Carefully Connor replaced the plastic casing exactly how he found it, handing the screwdriver back to Crystal she did the same, putting the screwdriver back in the exact place she had found it in the tool box.

Connor stood up next to Crystal. They looked at each other, the only thing they wanted to do was to get out of the ARC. It wasn't theirs anymore, someone else had claimed it and the atmosphere was unwelcoming. As they stood there they could almost feel the walls closing in on them, telling them to get out.

"Come on let's get out of here." Crystal said taking Connor's hand and darting up the stairs into the lighter, spacious main part of the ARC. A little more comfortable now, they began to slow down their pace and where about halfway across the room when they heard it. A loud screeching noise echoing through the building's interior. They stopped walking and listened to the sound. It had to have been a creature and large creature at that but the worst aspect was that whatever it was, was inside the building.

_Right now I know full well there are people reading this so why are there no reviews? Pretty please write me a review just to let me know if your enjoying it or not. _


	7. The ARC

**Chapter 7**

He hated to admit it but Cutter was lost. They had been wandering for about an hour now and nothing was even slightly recognizable. They passed building after building, house after house getting themselves more and more lost in the process.

Finally Cutter stopped and turned to the group.

"Alright anyone got a clue where we are?" Cutter said admitting defeat for one of the first times in his life.

Abi, Steven and Jack shook their heads. They had been following Cutter letting themselves be lead on a false sense of hope as they had assumed Cutter knew where he was going.

"Are you saying that all this time you hadn't a clue where you were going?" Jack asked.

"Sorry." Cutter said shrugging.

Steven was distracted he thought his eyes were deceiving him but on concentrating he found they weren't. There was someone moving over there.

"Look over there." He exclaimed pointing towards the figure.

Everyone eyes followed Steven's pointing. The figure dashed by a house and then across the road. It looked back and became instantly recognizable to at least three of the team.

Cutter and Steven exchanged looks.

"Helen." They said at the same time. Abi sighed, that was all they needed.

"Um…who?" Jack asked baffled.

"Helen Cutter." Abi explained. Jack looked at Cutter and pointed, he looked back at Abi frowning.

"ex-wife." Abi confirmed. Jack went wide-eyed with amazement, for some reason it had never occur to him that Cutter was married.

"Come on let's go and found out what she's doing here." Steven said leading the way after Helen. Cutter followed his long strides rendering him next to Steven in less than three steps. Abi grabbed Jack's wrist and walked behind Cutter and Steven, dragging Jack behind her.

Helen can't have seen them; otherwise she would have vanished just as easily as she arrived. They followed on, keeping far enough back to prevent her from noticing them.

It seemed like she was never going to stop, she kept going and Jack was getting bored. What bother was she anyway? It was tiring and they could be looking for his sister and Connor, which was the original idea.

Eventually they began to recall the streets and then the large building; they were back where they started. Helen disappeared into the building and one by one the team followed her across the road and in through one side of the double doors.

Crystal stayed close to Connor as they ventured across the room keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of the creature, so far so good. They had almost made it to the door. Just a few more steps and… they had reached it, with no immediate sign of any creature. Connor pushed the handle down and tried to push the door open. It wouldn't budge.

"You have got to be kidding me." He exclaimed when he realised their predicament.

"That's the only way out of here, we're stuck in here." Connor said turning to Crystal.

There was a crashing sound coming from behind them, Crystal turned in time to see the grey creature dart across the room disappearing behind the desks. It was the same creature that had chased them about an hour ago.

"Oh great, we stuck in here _with_ the creature." Crystal sighed.

They backed up onto the wall, as they watched the room be turned upside down by the creature as it ran around the room keeping completely out of sight.

"Can't we go out through the back?" Crystal whispered keeping her eyes alert for the creature as it continued to tear down the filing cabinet.

"No, there's no other way out of here, didn't you hear me a minute ago? We're stuck in here Crystal." Connor replied, irritated.

"Alright, alright, so what do you propose we do?" Crystal said matching Connor's irritated tone.

"Well we need to get that door open and that's not going to budge with anything manual." Connor explained calmly.

"Right and how are you going to get into the ARC's network from here?" Crystal asked not wanting to sound like she was being degrading but just trying to see the possibilities for herself.

"With this." Connor pulled out his anomaly detector and waved it in front of Crystal. Crystal smiled. Why didn't she think of that herself?

Cutter was cursing himself for losing sight of Helen. She had been in front of him in clear view a moment ago, now she had disappeared, as usual. He was in front of the group not entirely sure where he was leading them, or in fact where they were.

Abi ran her hand along the white washed wall. She could have sworn it was familiar but as with everything she had come across today, she couldn't say where she had seen it.

Jack was lagging behind the group, he had been watching Abi as she looked curiously at the wall and had to stop himself from laughing. It was about all the amusement he could get out of this boring walk down the corridor. What did it matter if they had lost this Helen, she can't be that threatening, can she?

Steven looked up at Cutter; he didn't really need to look at him to know how worried and annoyed he was, he could hear him muttering under his breath that was a bigger clue then if he had just said it out loud. That was of course if you knew him as well as Steven knew him. Steven felt his pocket vibrate, and immediately reached for his phone, there was nothing, there wasn't even a signal, so he can't have received any sort of message. Then… it had to be the anomaly detector. That was the only other thing in his pocket that was able to make a noise. He brought the device out of his pocket and was about to have a look at it when Abi spoke.

"Does anyone have any idea where we might be?"

Steven glanced briefly at Abi and then looked back down to the anomaly detector.

"This is telling me we're in the ARC." Steven said not believing the words that came out of his own mouth.

Abi, Cutter and Jack all looked at Steven, for a moment they had all been wondering where he had got the information from but now they were wondering if it was true.

"The Anomaly?" Cutter asked assuming that because Steven had the detector out he must have received an anomaly alert.

"Um, there isn't one. It's just saying 'Connor'." Steven looked up at Cutter and frowned.

"Anomaly detectors detecting anomaly detectors perhaps?" Jack suggested. He remembered Crystal saying it to Connor a few weeks ago and it and stuck because he had liked the way it sounded.

The three of them looked at their youngest member, wondering how he could have come up with such an idea. None of them had considered it before but now that it was brought to their attention, it seemed like a rational explanation.

"Well if that's the case, then we should follow it and it should lead us to Connor." Cutter said waiting for Steven to tell them were to go.

_well this is a short chapter but still no reviews, well if no one is going to review I might just stop writing this…_


	8. lost and found

**Chapter 8**

"Almost there." Connor muttered his eyes glued to the screen. Hacking into the systems had been no problem, getting to the point where he could automatically unlock the door had been no problem but waiting for it to actually load up and unlock the door was taking forever.

"Good, it's about time too." Crystal said leaning her arm on his shoulder.

"Just got to wait for it to load up." Connor added, glancing briefly at Crystal's arm.

There was a moment of silence as they waited for it to do something. Silence. There was something wrong about it. Crystal scanned the room, it was a mess, things were sprawled across the floor, cabinets had been turned over but there wasn't any sign of the creature who had committed the crime. But there was no way it could've escaped…so where was it?

Crystal began to feel a warm breeze on her face, she was worried, there was no air conditioner in this room, so there was no reason for the warm breeze.

Apprehensively Crystal turned to look beside her; the creature had given up destroying the room and now was staring at them.

"Connor!" Crystal blurted out, shaking his arm.

"It's doing it." Connor said thinking this was what Crystal was getting at.

"Connor!" Crystal said again, her voice was more irate then last time, making Connor look.

His immediate action was to get up and start to back away. Crystal gladly joined him and they back up as far as the door but of course then they were stuck and of course the creature was coming closer.

"Oh great!" Connor exclaimed.

The anomaly detector vibrated, the door clicked and Connor and Crystal fell out of the room, straight onto the floor.

"I think it's open now." Connor joked.

"Not the problem, now." Crystal said, scrambling to get up. The creature was still getting closer.

Helping Connor to his feet, they began to run down the corridor, running around the corner they almost ran straight into Cutter, Steven, Abi and Jack.

"We were just looking for you." Jack commented. They ignored him.

"Creature…" Connor panted. Taking the hint Cutter nodded to Steven and they walked cautiously round the corner.

The creature hadn't got very far out the door. Steven and Cutter opened fire and the creature began to retreat back into the room, and then it was out of sight. They weren't sure if they had hit it or not but at least it was no were near them now. They returned back to the team, who had been waiting in silence as the sound of the guns carried on.

"Well it won't be bothering us for a while." Steven announced.

"Did you kill it?" Abi enquired.

"We're not sure, I think we injured it but I don't think we actually killed it." Cutter answered her.

"Where have you lot been?" Connor asked moving the subject along.

"lost," Abi replied simply.

"Yeah we had a similar experience." Crystal added.

"Did you forget like, everything?" Jack queried, still feeling guilty for forgetting his own sister.

Crystal looked at her brother and frowned.

"Not everything. Why? " She said unsure of what Jack was on about.

"Because, I'm still hitting myself for forgetting you," Jack murmured, shyly looking towards his feet.

Crystal smiled; it was nice to know that he cared for her.

"Jack, I'm not going to be mad at you for that. We all seemed to have suffered some sort of memory loss, although by the sounds of it me and Connor turned out better than most."

Jack looked up at Crystal, his eyes like puppy dogs', looking all pitiful. Crystal couldn't resist, she reached out and hugged her brother, complaining that he was too cute at times.

"Come on let's get out the corridor and somewhere we can get things organised." Cutter said, ever the leader.

The team started to shuffle along the corridor.

"Going somewhere?" their way was blocked by none other than the person whom they had been following …Helen.

"But don't you want to know what I have been doing?" Helen said grinning.

"You've been messing with the ARC's security system, that's what you've been doing!" Connor shouted at Helen.

"And you've been messing with our memories!" Crystal added, matching Connor's level of noise.

"You have been observant, I'm surprised." Helen said. She always underestimated what Connor and Crystal were capable of and it always seemed to come back at her. "But I've done a lot more than just that," she added grinning.

Cutter stared at Helen. He was reminded why he had fallen in love with her, her brown hair fell curling at her shoulders and her green eyes sparkled but they were not sparkling for the reason that they used to be, she had a plan and it was going her way.

"Helen what are you doing here?" Someone had to ask it and Steven took the first opportunity.

"That's for me to know and you to find out." Helen replied curtly. She took three steps backwards as she spoke and then turned and ran.

Cutter immediately began running after her, Steven not far behind. Connor eager to be in the action gladly began to break into a run; Abi was a little hesitant but nevertheless join in too.

Crystal stopped, Jack wasn't moving.

"Are you coming?" Crystal asked her brother.

"What's the big fuss about, she's one person against what, six of us?" Jack asked, feeling that the only person he was going to get a decent answer out of was his sister.

"She's Helen Cutter, the one person who manages to sabotage the ARC, use the anomalies to her advantage she was the one who succeeded in blowing the ARC up…" Crystal explained hoping that Jack was following her.

"You mean she was the one who blew the ARC up that time? Yeah I see what you mean, she does sound a little dangerous… want to go find her?" Jack recalled the devastation of the ruined ARC and came to the conclusion that anyone who could cause so much damaged with no one else helping them had to be dangerous.

Crystal laughed, taking Jack's hand and yanking him down the corridor as she broke into a run.

"Arh, Crystal too fast!" Jack yelled, not that it made her stop or anything.

They reached the end of the corridor and found there were two routes that they could choose from. Both of them stopped. Which way had the rest of the team and Helen gone? Left or right?

Crystal was going to take her chances with left, but Jack tapped her arm, making her look right. Who should be there but the person the team had been chasing, well not anymore.

Helen was leaning on the wall, her arms folded looking straight at them.

"The two youngest members of the ARC team," Helen commented.

"Not technically, I'm exactly the same age as Connor," Crystal said without really thinking.

"Exactly the same age, what so he was born exactly the same day as you were?" Jack queried, surprised that he hadn't already found this out.

"Yep," Crystal said. Jack's jaw dropped open and at the same time he tried to frown.

"I never knew that." He said annoyed.

"Oh stop the chit-chat…" Helen interrupted. She moved away from the wall and took two steps closer to them.

"Come with me." Helen commanded.

"And what makes you think we're going to do that?" Jack jeered.

Helen reached into her pocket and even before she had fully pulled out the gun, Jack was eating his words.

"Come with me." Helen repeated. This time Crystal and Jack moved without saying anything, they had no choice; it was either that or feel the wrath of the gun that was pointed at them.

"I want you to put some of technology together," Helen told Crystal.

"I thought you could do it all." Crystal replied, trying not to sound too sarcastic.

"Turns out I don't know much about reconstruction," Helen retorted, waving the gun in the direction of the corridor making Crystal and Jack go in front of her.

"Just you keep moving, don't even think about trying anything." Helen warned when Jack looked suspiciously like he was going to try to run off. He hadn't been thinking of anything like running away, not when there was a gun pointing at him at point blank range. For the moment, neither of them had any choice but to keep going.

The team had found themselves back in the reception; they had made a full circle of the ARC, yet lost the person they had been chasing.

Cutter banged his fists on the table; papers flew off and landed in a pile of dust. Everyone just stared at it.

Abi tried the doors, they were both locked, there was no way that Helen could have gotten out of them. She scanned the area looking for any other way that Helen could have escaped the ARC, but all the windows were sealed and the only obvious door was locked, there was no way out. Helen was still in the building. She must have slipped away from them.

Steven looked worriedly at Cutter. He knew that every time Helen turned up, he was wrung with mixed emotions, which were hard to control and even harder to focus on. Steven considered going over to see if he was alright but decided against it, it was best to leave Cutter alone in moments of frustration.

Connor looked at the anomaly detector; the systems had been shut down again. They were locked in the ARC, the whole team including Helen were stuck in the ARC until Helen struck them with her plan or they managed to break into the systems and get them working again. Connor thought about this and turned round to relay this to Crystal. But she wasn't there. Neither was Jack.

Disgusted that they had managed to lose them, Connor looked from each of the present ARC team members wondering if any of them had noticed the two absent siblings. They looked too occupied to have even had the chance to think about it. Connor was going to be the one to break it to them.

"Um guys? We seem to have lost Crystal and Jack," Connor said, apparently no one heard him.

"Crystal and Jack are gone," Connor tried again, louder this time.

Abi frowned "What?"

Cutter turned abruptly to Connor. "What do you mean?"

Steven glanced around the room and then looked back at Cutter.

"I think we lost them on the way, I don't remember seeing them while we were running."

Cutter looked at the team. There was no other choice; they had to go back for them.

_I know there are people reading this and so it would be nice to hear some reviews from you!_


	9. sabretooth problems

**Chapter 9**

Helen stood over Crystal as she began to collect up the broken pieces of what once was a very high tech computer.

Jack had been handcuffed to the table and was now sitting on a chair feeling utterly useless. His eyes had wandered the room and had found nothing of interest to look at. He was bored and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

Crystal didn't like having to work under the threat of a gun, she could still see Helen holding it as she carried the pieces to the table and knew that she was meant to see it, so that she would know that there was no escape. Try it and Helen would shoot her down before she even got as far as the door, there was no doubt about it.

She gave Jack a comforting smile, she didn't like seeing her brother handcuffed like that but there wasn't really anything she could do about it.

She turned back to the work in hand. It was a bit on the difficult side but it was defiantly manageable. The only thing was that she could do with some extra help with some of the more tricky parts. She looked at Helen, thought about it for a while before deciding that she would be absolutely useless.

"I could really do with an extra pair of hands!" Crystal said nodding towards her brother.

Helen frowned; she didn't like the idea but in order to get what she wanted she was going to have to make a few subtle changes. Helen walked cautiously over to Jack and unhand-cuffed him, Jack rubbed his wrists and quickly went to join his sister.

Crystal looked momentarily relieved. She then pointed at him and mouthed 'you have to', pointed at the work she was doing and mouthed 'help me or you're' she then slid her hand across her throat and mouthed the word 'dead'.

Jack nodded; he had sensed that Helen wasn't a good person to be joking around with.

Helen kept her gun pointed at them as she returned to her original position. Crystal handed the tool box to Jack and quickly got to work.

Connor was in front of the rest of them. They had retraced their steps right back to when they as a team were reunited but they had found neither of them. Connor was starting to panic.

Cutter was convinced that they must have found a better hiding place and were safe, Abi and Connor weren't so sure. The only reason they could see for their disappearance was Helen, why else wouldn't they keep to the group?

Steven didn't agree with Cutter, they would've told them if they had found another hiding place, he believed that they had been forced to go a different direction due to Helen getting in their way.

So with everyone believing that they should start looking in different places, it was hard to decide communally where they were going.

Cutter wanted to search in the room that Connor and Crystal had found themselves while trying to find the reason for the change of the locking mechanism, Steven wanted to search in the first corridor that they had come to that they hadn't gone down, Abi thought that it was probably a good idea to check a bit further up then that and Connor was prepared to search everywhere.

It was agreed, eventually, that Cutter and Steven would search in the places around them and then Abi and Connor would try a bit further up, more towards the reception area.

As soon as this was settled Connor was urging Abi on, anxious to start looking.

"Gee calm down Connor, I'm coming!" Abi said hurrying herself up so Connor wouldn't get too angry with her.

Cutter pulled Steven towards the door. He was eager to get going too, but just not as eager as Connor was. Steven obliged without so much as a word.

"Screw, screwdriver…screwdriver," Crystal was getting impatient with Jack, he was giving the right equipment at the right time and when she asked for something he would take ages looking for it and then slowly hand it to her. It was almost like he was doing it on purpose to annoy her.

Jack searched through the tool box and found a screwdriver, he quickly handed it to Crystal before she raised her voice any louder. Jack was getting very irritated by her constant demands; she didn't even leave him enough time to be able to find the thing she wanted. She expected it to be there straight away and Jack wasn't quick enough for her, so she was getting angry with him. Jack was biting his lip at every sarcastic remark Crystal gave him, he wanted to shout one back at her and refuse to give her what she had asked for but as a gun was being pointed at him he was having to hold back the comments that were building up with in his head.

Helen twiddled the gun in her hand. She was bored. There was nothing for her to do other then watch Crystal working which wasn't all that interesting, although she had to admit she was pretty impressed by how far she had been able to get in the little time she had had.

Connor was trying his best to hurry Abi up; she seemed to be extra slow for some reason.

"Come on Abi!" Connor said exasperated with her slow pace.

"Connor, calm down…" Abi tried to soothe him. She caught him up and made him stand still, holding his arms to make sure he wouldn't try to move off.

"We will find them, ok? I promise we will." Abi reassured him. Connor looked wide eyed at Abi, he knew she was right, they would find them, but he just want to find them now. He had no patience for the whole search party act. He nodded to show that he had taken in what Abi had just told him, Abi smiled at him.

"Come on then!" Abi grabbed Connor's hand and yanked him down the corridor. Connor was a little overwhelmed with Abi's action, it had taken him by surprise and he hadn't expected to be pulled so hard.

Abi stopped when they reached a room. It was recognisably the ARC's zoo. The cages where wide open, but that was to be expected, for the looks of the rest of the ARC, the zoo hadn't been properly used for a long while.

Connor tried calling out Crystal and Jack's name to see if they were anywhere near, no answer.

Connor turned to Abi, trying to indicate that they should look somewhere else when Abi started to walking away from him. Keen to learn what she had discovered, Connor hurried over to her.

Abi was staring at a bucket of meat. Fresh meat, which meant that there were still creatures thriving in the ARC's zoo and someone had taken the liberty of making sure they were fed. Suddenly the empty cages took on a more frightening appeal, if there were creatures and the cages were empty, it meant that they were probably running around the ARC somewhere.

Connor didn't see why the bucket of fresh meat was gaining Abi's attention and so his attention span soon gave over and search for something else to focus on.

He heard something coming from his right. Thinking it was Abi he paid no attention to it that was until he wanted to speak to her. Turning his head to face, what he thought was Abi, he found himself staring into the face of a Sabre-toothed tiger.

"Abi!" Connor said, his voice squeaking with fear.

"What?" Abi yelled, his voice irritating her.

"Abi!" Connor persisted, not daring to take his eyes away from the Sabre-tooth.

Abi swung herself round ready to yell at him again, but she quickly changed her mind when she spotted the Sabre-tooth tiger looking hungrily at Connor.

"Oh!" Abi let out.

"Gonna help me then?" Connor asked, his sarcasm wasn't genuine and his squeaky voice made this clear, he was scared and it was something to say.

Abi glanced around, looking for something, anything that would get the sabre-tooth away from Connor.

Her eyes fell onto the open cage door, and then to the meat. A plan formed in her mind.

She grabbed the bucket and taking a piece of meat out of it, she waved it in front of her, trying to get the sabre-tooth's attention.

It didn't want to know. It much preferred the look of Connor for a meal then the measly piece of meat Abi was holding in her hand. She didn't blame him, for Connor would make a much more nutritious dinner then one slice of meat. She knew what she would be doing if she were him, but she couldn't let it happen. Connor wasn't food. She knew that but the more important thing was trying to make the sabre-tooth tiger believe that.

As the tiger wasn't reacting to her attempts Abi moved closer to it, all the time waving the piece of meat in front of her. It took a while but eventually the sabre-tooth caught a whiff of the meat, decided that it smelt better than Connor and started to follow Abi.

Abi led the sabre-tooth well away from Connor and closer towards the cage door. She made sure she kept eye contact with the tiger, that way she would be able to detect if it was going to try and do something unexpected.

When she was close enough, Abi took her chance and threw the meat into the cage. As predicted the sabre-tooth took the bait and followed the meat into the cage.

Abi slammed the cage door shut, holding it in place she looked at Connor.

"Get me that padlock!" she ordered. Connor didn't have to look very far; he found it lying on the table, waiting for him. Grabbing it quickly he thrust the padlock in Abi's hand and she secured it in place. She double checked the padlock and then moved away from the cage, satisfied that it would take the tiger a while before he managed to escape out of it.

Abi and Connor exchanged glances, it had been close. Closer than either of them had liked but they had managed, without Cutter and without the use of any weapons.

_You know what I'm going to say but as no one seems to be paying any attention I'll say it again, pretty please review!_


	10. escape

**Chapter 10 **

Cutter and Steven entered the room, their guns in their hands ready, just in case a certain creature decided to reappear. The room looked empty but that didn't mean it wasn't that they had learnt from experience.

Keeping their eyes peeled, Cutter and Steven edged further into the room.

Steven thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, when he turned and pointed his gun at it he found it had just been a piece of paper floating down from the desk to the floor.

"Crystal? Jack?" Cutter called into the vast space that occupied the room. As he had expected: no response. Taking a quick scan across the room, Cutter concluded that there was no one in this room.

Catching each other's eye, Cutter nodded to the door and the two men began to walk back through it.

As Cutter was almost passed the threshold he heard a loud noise behind him. He turned round in time to see the whole room being tipped upside down in a rippled motion. Cutter caught a glimpse of the creature as it swept its way across the room destructing every attachable thing in the room as he went. Then it disappeared from his view and as he screwed his eyes up squinting to try and find out where the creature had gone, Steven had found it.

It was coming straight towards Cutter, the look in his eyes told Steven that the creature didn't intend to stop. Reacting quickly Steven pointed his gun at the creature and fired, three shots buried themselves into the creature's flesh.

Cutter jumped out the way, getting his bearings as Steven fired the last shot. The creature was clearly still alive and active, despite having three bullets within its chest. While the creature was occupied with Steven, Cutter raised his gun and aimed it so in theory it would end up in the creature's heart.

He fired.

The creature's body slumped to the ground dead.

Steven gave a sigh of relief and looked at Cutter.

"Thanks," Cutter had taken the words out of Steven's mouth. Steven nodded.

"No problem, thank you!" Steven replied, his thanks having lost impact.

"Right let's get out of here, they obviously aren't here." Cutter quickly got motivated and Steven followed suit. The moment forgotten.

Crystal had managed to get the computer to its original state and was now she was just starting to connect the monitor to the screen.

Helen was beginning to get impatient. She could see how close it was to being up and running and was getting restless waiting to get her hands on the computer. Her plan was inches away from being put into action.

Jack had watched his sister with admiration; he had tried his hardest to be help and knew he hadn't quite made the bar. There was nothing else he could do at the moment, apart from watch as Crystal began wiring up the monitor.

There was just one more wire to be slotted in and almost as soon as that was done the screen flicked on.

Helen's eyes lit up as she saw the screen flick into life and she was about to sit at the computer screen and start her work, when Crystal stopped her.

"You can't use it yet, I need to re-install the programs." Crystal told her. Reluctantly Helen backed away and let Crystal continue.

Taking over the seat Crystal worked methodically through the programs. She was halfway through when she took a break, glancing at Helen and making sure she wasn't watching, she clicked on a new program and changed settings. She quickly changed what she needed and then returned to installing the programs. After a few minutes, Crystal took her hand of the keyboard and sank back into the chair.

"That's the last program, now what did you want to do?" Crystal looked at Helen; she had already anticipated what she was going to do and was ready to be ousted out of her chair.

Helen immediately took the keyboard off her and made her get out of her chair. Crystal grinned as she stood by her brother. Jack knew that she had done something to the computer, he just wasn't sure what.

Helen tried typing something into the computer, an error message appeared, getting rid of the message she tried again. The same thing happened. Helen glared at Crystal.

"What did you do to it?" she demanded to know.

Crystal grinned, with a scheming expression at Helen.

"I've changed the settings, the computer is in code." Crystal replied.

"Change it back!" Helen yelled.

"Sorry can't be done, the settings have been changed and saved and you can only access the changes during the installing of the programs." Crystal explained matter of fact-ly.

Grudgingly Helen took a step back from the computer and let Crystal take up her place.

"So, what do you want me to do?" Crystal asked, feeling rather smug now.

Helen sighed, this was how she had planned it, she was meant to tell anyone else about it, that's when things begin to go wrong. But there was now no way else to go about it, if she didn't tell Crystal, then it wouldn't be done at all.

"Block off a room and then sound an alarm." Helen simplified it.

Crystal resisted the urge to say anything, she wouldn't question it. She had already done enough to annoy Helen; she didn't dare take it any further. Taking the first part of the command, she opened the program that she could easily centrally lock all the doors leading to a certain room.

"Right, what room?" Crystal sounded ever so calm for someone who was doing something under direct command of someone who had a gun and was not afraid to use it.

"The front reception, leave one door open."

Crystal highlighted the room and then clicked on 'automatic lockdown' then she highlighted one of the doors and clicked 'unlock'.

Helen watched over her shoulder, scrutinizing her every move to make sure it fitted with her plan.

"Now start an ultrasonic alarm," Was the next order. Crystal had to restrain herself from questioning the command. What use was an ultrasonic alarm? Was it even possible to do that? Assuming that as Helen had commanded her to do it, it must be possible and so she endeavoured to find it on the system.

To her surprise she managed to find it within the section she thought would have nothing in. clicking it, she had only the fact that the computer told her that it was activated to guess that it had worked.

Frowning Crystal looked closer at the screen. The CCTV showing on the left hand side of the screen had things fleeting around heading into the reception room via the door she had unlocked. On closer inspection she found these things to be creatures and they were all heading in to the room.

It had caught Jack's eye too. He leaned in, almost forgetting that his sister was actually sitting in the seat, narrowing his eyes to check it wasn't his vision that was deceiving him. It wasn't what he was seeing was true, yet it seemed so weird. Why was every single creature heading in the same direction?

"What's going on?" Jack demanded to know. Crystal was glad that he had spoken and not her, that meant that Helen was less likely to be angry at him.

"I've trained them," Was the vague answer he got.

"To do what?" Crystal tried her luck, figuring that she had a better chance of getting an answer now it wasn't just her asking all the questions.

Helen hesitated. She debated on whether she should tell them, but then she figured that they couldn't do anything to prevent anything now and so she continued.

"To listen for the ultrasonic alarm and retreat into that particular room."

"To do what?" As soon as she said it Crystal knew she had crossed a line, gone too far. As she expected Helen ignored her and refused to answer it. That was obviously classified information.

Abi and Connor moved into the hallway, walking along with a sluggish pace that Abi had set. Connor halted in his tracks. His ears had always been tuned to recognise anything mechanical; especially to do with the ARC of which most of the additional technology was his own creation. And now he could hear the familiar sound of the automatic locking system kicking in place, it was a clearer sound then it should be, but he considered that age had something to do with that.

"Can you hear that?" Connor asked Abi. Abi, whose ears weren't quite as in tune as Connor's, couldn't hear anything.

"Hear what?" Abi asked, frowning at him.

"Hear that… the mechanical sound of the automatic locking system." Connor explained realising that Abi hadn't a clue what she was meant to be hearing.

Concentrating hard Abi began to hear what Connor was on about. And then she began to see why Connor was pointing this out. Who was doing it? She knew enough about technology to know that someone had to be controlling it, turning the buttons on and off.

"How is it doing that?" Abi asked.

"Well there's a programme on the computer that allows…" Connor was cut off.

"I meant who's doing it?" Abi snapped.

"Oh, well considering the state of everything here I'm surprise that anyone's got a computer actually running; most of the ones I've seen have been in pieces." Connor said, not really answering Abi's question.

Abi gave him a hard stare and was about to re-ask the question when she was interrupted by a loud clanking noise, coming from the Zoo where they had just been. Both their heads turned straight back at the door. Abi rushed back into the room, Connor following her tail.

In the cage the sabre-tooth tiger was throttling his head against the bars, doing its best to break free.

"It's a good job that its special enforced metal!" Connor exclaimed watching the creature with fascination.

"I'm not so sure that is going to make much difference." Abi said regrettably. She had noticed that the bars where bending in, subsiding to the tiger's efforts. She had a horrible feeling that the re-enforced bars wouldn't hold the creature in. The metal was beginning to snap, the sabre-tooth was winning the fight.

"Connor…" Abi was about say that they should get out of there, when bars finally gave in and the Sabre-tooth tiger was able to walk out of the cage, shake itself and then turn towards them.

"RUN!"

Abi shoved Connor in front of her, trying her best to make him move faster. They needed to get a good distance between them and the tiger if they were going to stand any chance of stay alive.

They shot down the corridor, running faster than they thought possible. The tiger hot on their heels as they barely managed to keep any distance between it and them.

Running into the reception area, Abi darted behind the counter and dragged Connor with her. There was a loud roaring noise, it didn't sound like the sabre-tooth. Abi sneaked a quick look over the counter; she was dumbfounded to see that the sabre-tooth tiger wasn't the only danger.

She slinked back down into the crouched position they had both taken while hiding behind the counter, ready to move as soon as they needed to.

"Oh my!" Abi breathed.

"What?" Connor didn't like the sound of that 'oh my'.

"It seems that the sabre-tooth isn't the only thing we need to worry about." Abi replied in a low whisper.

"Oh god!" Connor exhaled, stifling the sound with his hand.

Abi felt herself holding her breath, waiting to see what would happen next. She could see to possible ways, one being that the sabre-tooth would go for the other creatures and then they would be witnessing a fight or the sabre-tooth would ignore them and follow their scent.

_it's getting very close to a main climax yet still no reviews! __L_


	11. Just a deterence

_Ok clearing a few things up: I've made Connor and Crystal twenty and Jack nineteen. And Crystal's role will be discovered later on! Read and wait!_

**Chapter 11**

Steven had to pull Cutter back when he spotted the Sabre-tooth run across the adjacent corridor; Steven had seen the immediate danger whereas Cutter had seen the immediate danger to Abi and Connor whom he had just seen running away from it. Unfortunately Cutter's urge to protect his colleges came before his own protection.

Steven kept a firm grip on Cutter until the creature was far enough away. Then he loosened it and let Cutter break loose and go after it.

They kept their distance from the tiger and quietly followed it into the reception area.

Both their mouths fell open as they realised what lay in front of them.

"Close the door." Helen ordered. Crystal hesitated. Her heart had skipped a beat when she saw Connor and Abi run into the room, then it had skipped again as Cutter and Steven walked in. She now realised what she had created.

"NO! I can't!" Crystal exclaimed.

Helen sighed; she drew something out of her pocket and pointed it towards Crystal, the tell-tale noise of the trigger, clicking into place, brought Crystal to her senses.

"Do it, or I'll shot." Helen whispered in her ear. She had no choice. Crystal pressed the button that closed the door and the pushed herself away from the control panel in disgust.

Although she made no sound, Jack could see the tears falling from his sister's eyes. He walked over to her, wrapping his right arm around her neck and then bringing the left to join it, although it never made it. Jack felt his wrist touch cold metal and then he heard the familiar sound of the handcuffs as it clicked into place.

Helen had to use a lot of force to get Jack's over hand into the handcuff, but it didn't take long. And it didn't help that she had Crystal trying her best to break the grip between her and Jack.

"Let go of my brother!" Crystal yelled, yanking Helen's arm with all her strength. Helen tried shaking her off but when this proved too difficult to handle while trying to keep hold of Jack, she tried another method. Taking her right hand away, Helen used it to slap Crystal round the cheek with all her might.

Crystal stumbled back, shocked. Her check tingled with pain and she had to sit down, stunned, as Helen dragged Jack out the room. A few moments later, when she regained her senses, Crystal began to get into gear and thought logically about the situation. Having no way of knowing where Helen had taken Jack, for the moment. Crystal took on the subjected of the reception room.

Turning back to the computer, Crystal attempted to undo the last command. This came to no effect, as she discovered that the system had been set to computer operated closing but manual opening, so from her position she had no power to reopen the door.

So she set about trying to tackle the problem of finding her brother. She managed to bring up a CCTV view of the ARC and she studied the screen at length until she found what she was looking for. Helen dragging Jack down a corridor, heading towards the reception room. Clicking on the square that held this image, Crystal was able to maximise it and zoom it a little to see exactly what they were doing. She followed them till they reached the reception room, at which she had to change camera settings and find the one which showed her the reception door, at that point she zoomed right in, so Helen's actions were visible.

Crystal grabbed a piece of paper and found a pen in her pocket, she ready to write down what Helen did to open the door.

_1.__Slide open control panel_

_2.__Click enter button_

_3.__Green button _

_4.__Yellow button_

_5.__Number key, 32684914_

_6.__Red button twice_

_7.__Enter button_

After scribbling the information down, Crystal returned to the screen in time to see her brother being pushed into the room and the door closed on him. Then Helen turned back, she was heading straight back to this room.

In a panic, for she knew it wouldn't take her long to get back, Crystal brought the screen back to normal size and then exited the program, returning it back to what was originally on the screen and then lastly, almost forgotten, she replaced the pen in her pocket and folded the paper and placed it in a different pocket.

No sooner had she done that, than Helen walked through the door. Crystal easily faked confusion as Helen remerged into her sight.

"Helen, why are you doing this?" Crystal asked.

Helen turned and gave her a weak smile, then she turned back to the table, placing the handcuffs in her rucksack.

"Because I have to, I don't suspect you to understand," Helen shrugged her rucksack on her back and walked back across to the door.

"You can come with me or I can lock you in, it's your choice," Helen offered.

Crystal, against better judgement, decided that she'd rather go then be locked in the room. This way she could discover what Helen was really up to and possibly learn more about the anomalies, research for Cutter, she would deem it.

Jack flattened himself against the wall when he saw what was in front of him. The Sabre-tooth tiger had automatically turned to him as the door and made a loud noise on shutting and relocking.

"Oh Gosh! What the heck is that?" he exclaimed.

"A sabre-tooth tiger, Jack, don't' move!" Cutter ordered. Cutter and Steven had hardly moved since arriving in the room, they had only just located Abi and Connor when the door had been reopen and Jack had been thrown in.

Jack didn't dare move a muscle.

"Alright, when I say run you get yourself over that counter got it?" Cutter said calmly. Jack nodded too scared to say anything else.

Steven slowly removed his gun out of his pocket and pointed it at the tiger.

He fired.

"NOW!" Cutter shouted and Jack darted over to the counter finding the hatch and sliding in, on his knees.

The bullet had completely missed the tiger and Steven gestured for Cutter to go. Cutter hesitated for a moment, looking at his best friend for a second and as they both backed up, Cutter chose his moment right to run and jump up onto the counter and then jump down on the other side.

The bullet had missed the tiger; it had sailed by it and wounded another creature.

The sabre-tooth had turned its attention solely to Steven and other creatures where also taking the hint that Steven could possibly be dinner. Keeping himself calm, Steven raised his gun in the opposite direction, not really caring where he aimed it and fired, the bullet smashed a glass window, turning the attention of the creatures in front of him just long enough for him to be able to vault over the counter and join the others.

They all stayed perfectly still, listening for the creatures' next move. They all grimaced as they heard the crunch and squelch of bones and flesh as they realised the wounded creature had become the dinner for the other creatures.

Connor turned to Jack.

"'ere where's Crystal?" he demanded in a low whisper.

"She's with Helen." Jack replied with an irritated tone.

"What? You left her with Helen!" Connor's voice rose up from its original whisper.

"Didn't exactly have a choice, I was handcuffed and dragged here!" Jack hissed back through gritted teeth.

"Whoa ok, stop, both of you. This isn't helping anything, right now we need to think of a way of getting out of here." Cutter interjected before it got to out of hand. While the creatures where preoccupied, Cutter took a quick look over the edge of the counter to see their assets. It didn't look good. They knew that the doors were locked and due to the internal system being all connected the windows were most probably all shut too.

"Where the hell are we anyway?" Abi threw the question out there, in a hushed voice.

Connor threw a puzzled look back at her.

"You mean you haven't worked out that we're in the ARC?" Connor said not believing that she could have mistaken her workplace.

"Well that helps… really?" Steven had not been aware that they had been battling the creatures within the ARC.

"OK how can you not realise that!" Connor was even more puzzled at Steven's confusion then Abi's.

"It must have been something to do with when we were knocked unconscious, now getting back to the matter on hand…" Cutter stopped the conversation before they completely missed the point. He looked at Connor, "Connor, do you know a way of opening those doors?"

"Um, I think you'll find I was the one with door codes!" it was Steven who answered Cutter.

"Don't suppose you remember any?" Cutter ventured hopefully.

"Not a signal one." Steven supressed Cutter's hope.

Crystal followed Helen down the corridor; she pondered on where she was being led to but considered Helen's actions to be cruel but not cruel enough to really harm her.

"Helen, what good's this going to do, all you've done is condemn a group of people to death, one of those is your husband and one of those is your lover…" Crystal faded at the last part wondering if she had been wise to mention the last part.

Helen turned round facing Crystal.

"They'll get out of there, they always do, it was just a deterrence." Helen whipped back around and continued on down the hallway.

"Then what about me, why am I still here, why am I not with the rest of them?" Crystal tried a new question, running after Helen.

"Because you're the one who seems less effected by my memory wiper and to be frank, you're the only one to hand. Believe me if I could've had my pick on who came with me it would not have been you."

Crystal didn't know quite what to make of Helen's last two sentences. It was good that she was needed, but it didn't sound very good that Helen disliked the idea of having her around. And what was a memory wiper?

Crystal kept silent as they walked down some stairs and into a room. She knew she had irritated Helen and didn't want to take it any further. The room was unfamiliar; they had gone down into the basement part of the ARC, an area which Crystal rarely needed to visit. In the centre of the room there was an anomaly but it wasn't like the average anomaly, it was a perfect circle and it took Crystal a few moments to realise that this was done via a device that seemed to be containing the anomaly. It was a finished version of the one Connor had been creating.

Helen headed straight over to the table, not giving the anomaly one look. She picked up something and then shoved it in Crystal's hand.

"Get this working will you?" Helen demanded. Crystal looked at what she had been handed. It was a glass like material with a white plastic casing, high tech, and compact.

"I've never even seen this before how am I went to fix it?" Crystal was cut of very quickly.

"It has the same principles as your detector." Crystal turned the detector over in her hand, the back easily slid off, revealing the wires and screws that held it all together. Helen was right the mechanics of this newer version were almost exactly the same as her older version, a few slight differences but not so many that she couldn't determine the problem. A wire had come loose; it wasn't broken or damaged just loose and very easily fixed.

Crystal brought the detector to the table and then with a steady hand reconnected the wire. Putting the back securely in place, she attempted to look for an on switch. She tried looking in the left hand corner where the on switch was on hers but there was nothing.

"Er how do you switch this thing on?" and soon as Crystal said the word 'on' the detector came to life, alarming Crystal who had never expected it to be that easy.

"Voice activated." Helen said, snatching the detector off her. She tapped the screen several times and then smiled to herself, muttering under her breath something that Crystal couldn't quite make out.

"Unlock that." Helen pointed to the machine that was keeping the anomaly in a locked position. Had this been anyone else, Crystal would have refused to do anything until they had added a please on the end of the command, but as this was Helen she got straight to it.

The machine was simple enough to unlock. All Crystal had to do was put herself in the mind of Connor and she knew the four digit code he would have used. 18/07, their birthday. But it wasn't all as simple as that, there was another security section she had to pass before she could actually unlock the anomaly. This was harder, it required a password. Hesitating for a while Crystal tried typing in 'Connor' but it came up with an error sign. She tried his full name 'Connor Temple' and yet still an error sign. Sighing in frustration Crystal tried to think of a password that Connor would use. It would be a name of some sort, she knew that, it had to be memorable so someone he knew very well… taking a deep breath in Crystal slowly typed into the machine C_R_Y_S_T_A_L. for a moment the screen flickered and went blank and the it came back displaying the words: Access granted.

Crystal was still trying to get over the warm sensation of flattery that she felt having now discovered that it was her name used in as the password, when Helen spoke, she was still in a daze and hoped she hadn't heard Helen right.

"Go on, through the anomaly, you first."

Crystal broke out of her daze.

"What?"

"You heard me, through the anomaly." Helen gestured to the glimmering shards that made up the anomaly. Crystal glanced at it and then at Helen to see if she was being serious. She was, dead serious.

_had fun writing this chapter, really got into it, so what do you think?_


	12. we lost her!

**Chapter 12 **

Connor glanced around the room from the confinements of the small area behind the reception desk. There had to be some way out of here. Ok so the windows and doors where out, but there must be some other way, maybe not so conventional, that they could escape from the lion's den so to speak. His eyes glanced up, hoping that something would come to him, when, as if answering his hopes, his eyes fell on the vent.

"The Vents, we could use the vents to get out!" Connor relayed his new idea to the rest of the team, who had been less hopeful with their own ideas, finding a dangerous fault in each.

"And just how are we meant to get up there?" Abi asked looking up at the vent and judging the height.

"Well we use the ladder which is over there…arh!" Connor saw his downfall. The ladder was situation almost the complete opposite end of the room and between them and it was a sea of all sorts of different creatures. The team fell into silence again.

"Nah, come on. We can't just give up on that idea, the vents is the only logical way out. Ok so we have a little problem getting the ladder to reach it but that's a challenge right?" Jack had a point. If they were going to keep giving up on their ideas nothing was going to happen.

"Right, ok, Steven, we'll get the ladder, we'll need some sort of diversion, I'll leave that to you." Cutter took charge, glancing at Abi, Connor and Jack, awaiting their agreement. All three nodded.

Cutter and Steven crawled over to the gap, Steven located the ladder and then they assessed their path. The easiest route to take was straight across but that was risky, so they decided to follow the edge of the room all the way round to the ladder, unless the diversion would distract enough creatures to be able to do a mad dash across the room, that was their plan.

Abi took a quick look at what they had to distract. There were too many different types of creatures to be able to distract them with a sound; it would take too long to get the right sort of sound that would affect each creature. They needed something visual and preferably with sound and movement to suit everything.

"So what we gonna do Abi?" Jack asked, guessing by her concentrating look, she was going to be responsible for the distraction plan.

"We need something that's going to get round the room; you know, grab every creature's attention." Abi explain their problem.

Jack fiddled around in his pocket, he could have sworn he had something in there that would do the trick. Ah yes, he found it! Jack held up a tennis ball.

"Will this work?" he asked.

Abi looked at him and then at the tennis ball and a plan formed in her mind.

"Yes, that will work very nicely!" she replied, taking the ball in her hand.

She was now glad of those PE lessons she had paid attention in. Aiming the ball towards the wall, she threw it, bouncing it off the floor so it hit the wall at the exact angle that would cause it to bounce off onto the glass panels, on the floor, back on the glass panels, on the floor and then eventually roll away and stop at the far wall.

The creatures' heads turned in all sorts of direction, giving Cutter and Steven enough time to dart across the room.

They quickly organised themselves so that Cutter took the top end and Steven took the bottom and then they turned the ladder vertical and headed back the way they had come. Unfortunately the distraction had finished working its magic two seconds too quick. The majority of the creatures where still disorientated, there was just a certain few that weren't and Cutter did not like the look of one particular creature who had its eyes fixed on them.

"Steven, we had better be quick." Cutter hissed back to him. Steven had already located the problem and they were both in agreement. They quickened their pace but it was no use, the Sabre-tooth tiger was already heading straight for them. There was only one other means of protecting themselves. Waiting until the creature was about to take its final pounce, Cutter then gave Steven the command of duck! The sabre-tooth flew over their heads and hit the wall, not hard enough to knock him out, but hard enough to render him dizzy.

Wasting no more seconds, Cutter and Steven quickly got themselves back behind the reception desk, while the sabre-tooth was too dizzy to work out where they went. Laying the ladder down in front of them, Cutter and Steven tried to catch their breath, while the others moved in putting up the ladder and directing it to the vent.

Connor was the first up the ladder. He loosened the metal grid that was covering the vent and took it down, placing it on the floor before heading up the ladder again and disappearing through the vent. Abi and Jack followed, leaving Cutter and Steven to bring up the rear.

Cutter kicked the ladder away from the vent, so as none of the creatures could follow them. Connor led the way crawling through the vents, he was anxious to find Crystal and Helen, and took the time to check through the grids to look for any sign of them. He suddenly paused almost missing the next vent grid, this sudden stop caused Jack to crash into Abi. Jack fell on top of Abi.

They scrambled up and then fell back onto each other, they tried getting up again and fell again. Then they tried a better system, Jack moved first shifting himself off Abi and then Abi got herself up into a sitting position facing Jack.

"That never happened, ok?" Abi told him, pointing her finger at him and watching his face redden with embarrassment.

"Yeah sure!" Steven laughed having seen it all happen right in front of him and finding it very amusing.

"Alright we've had a laugh, now can we get moving!" Cutter interrupted the fun, his voice echoing slightly as it travelled along the vent.

"Um guys, we've lost Connor." Jack pointed out realising that the event had happened behind Connor and so he hadn't been halted by it and had just carried on not knowing that everyone else had stopped.

"Oh god, right we need to find him quick!" Cutter urged the team in front of him.

Abi quickly got on her hands and knees and started to crawl along the vent in the same fashion they had been only a few moments ago, only a faster pace now that Abi was leading.

Connor was a long way ahead of the rest of the team, he realised that now but thought it too late to turn back and continued to press onwards. The vent was becoming narrower and it was becoming increasingly difficult to crawl along. The vent grids had stopped showing and Connor had no clue whereabouts he was in the ARC, he assumed he had gone down a level but without looking he wasn't entirely sure exactly where. He had decided to keep on going until he came across another vent grid, then he would get himself out of the system and navigate his way around the ARC in a more comfortable fashion.

With this in mind Connor almost didn't notice the metal squares that constructed the vent shape become looser and looser, until that is, he fell through them.

He landed on his back, surrounded by the broken parts of the vent.

"Ow!" Connor squealed. He scrunched his eyes up with the pain and his hands went automatically to the source of pain, his head.

"Connor! Are you ok?" Crystal ran to his side, glad to have a distraction.

Connor opened one eye, checking his ears were not deceiving him and then subsided into Crystal's affection, when he found all his senses to be present and correct. She began to clear up the debris that encircled him and then checked his head for any sign of serious injury; she found nothing worthy of alarm.

Helen watched from a distance, her plans ruined by the unexpected arrival. No one was supposed to know this happened. She regarded some contempt to the couple who shared more then she had ever been willing to share with her own husband.

Crystal helped Connor to sit up; he had feigned being too weak to do it by himself. When he was propped up against the wall, Connor opened his eyes and found Crystal staring back at him with her crystal blue eyes. Their gazes locked for a moment, long enough to see the truth behind them, a truth that deep inside they already knew.

Helen removed her gaze from Connor and Crystal to the anomaly. A new realization had occurred to her. She hadn't needed Crystal to start the experiment, so she didn't needed Crystal to end it.

Abi was conscious of the vent decreasing in size and wondered how long this was going to go on for. Thoughts emerged in her head of getting stuck within the vent and no one being able to help her get out. As she emerged round the slight bend, Abi was relieved to see signs of light. When she reached the source of the light, Abi halted not wanting to fall down the nice gaping hole that she assumed Connor must've created. Cautiously she peered downwards through the gap, she saw Connor as she suspected and Crystal beside him, which she was pleased about and then her eyes fell on Helen.

Abi turned her head and whispered Helen's name to Jack and then he turned to Steven and whispered the same and then Steven relayed the message to Cutter. Cutter attempted to get closer and see for himself, this involved Steven having to shuffle as far as he could to the side of the vent and they struggled to change places.

"Don't let her get away!" Cutter hissed to Abi.

Abi returned her gaze to the interior of the room.

She whispered to Jack that Connor and Crystal where also in the room which stopped him from worrying about his sister, not that he seemed to be too bothered.

Helen looked one last time at Connor and Crystal and then turned, stepping into the anomaly.

"Helen's gone through the anomaly!" Abi relayed the latest information to the team behind her.

"Get down there!" Cutter shouted back. Abi hearing his voice sounding impatient took no time in manoeuvring herself out of the vent and lowering herself into the room. Jack followed quickly after and Cutter practically jumped down at the same time Steven carefully lowered himself down.

Cutter headed straight to the anomaly.

"Cutter…" Steven began to warn him but found he had been a second too late and Cutter had already gone through. Steven followed wanting to catch him up before he did something drastic.

Cutter stared at the circle of anomalies that surrounded him. Which one had Helen gone through?

"Cutter it's not worth it, Helen could be through any one of those and about hundreds of miles away forget it and lets concentrate on getting out of here…there" Steven ended on a confused note realising that as he stepped through the anomaly he technically was no long in the futuristic ARC they had been in. but the rest of the speech seemed to have sunk in and Cutter turned back towards Steven slowly walking back to the main anomaly, taking one last glance round the circle of anomalies trying to understand why they had formed such a neat circle and left one in the middle which he was about to step through.

"Cutter, are you coming or not?" Steven pressured his friend to move.

Cutter didn't hear exactly what Steven said, but the noise had alerted him out of his deep thought.

"Yeah, but answer me this Steven, How? How did Helen know the anomalies where like this how did she know where to find the anomaly that got her into the middle?" Cutter brought forward his queries.

"Maybe it was a lucky guess…" Steven began but was cut off.

"Steven come on, this is Helen. She's got to be the reason we've ended up here."

"Well not really it was Jack's fault for falling through the anomaly which then made Abi try to rescue him which made me try to stop her which made Crystal concerned for her brother and go after him which made Connor chase after her which made you go in after all of us." Steven smiled at Cutter hoping to have cheered him up a bit.

"Alright, you've made your point but if it hadn't been for Helen we would have been back through by now and you can't deny that!" Cutter said stepping passed Steven and through the anomaly before he could say a word.

Connor lent heavily on Crystal to heave himself to a standing position. Crystal had to brace her arms in order to carry Connor's weight and although she said nothing, she was struggling and very glad when Connor actually got to a standing position and the extra weight was lifted off her arms. Connor gave Crystal a silent thank-you and for a moment they stayed looking at each other, leaning closer…

"I lost her. We're just going to have to get ourselves out of here and try and find our way back," Cutter announced stepping back into the room and ruining the moment.

Crystal shook her head and smiled at Connor, it was typical that it was Cutter who had ruined the moment. Connor forced a smile back he was more disappointed than he cared to make known.

Cutter made of in the direction of the exit. Abi and Jack followed him making sure they didn't lose sight of him. Steven emerged out of the anomaly just as they began to turn the corner and dashed after them not noticing that Crystal and Connor were still in the room.

Crystal took a few steps in the direction the rest of the team had just gone, Connor pulled her back.

"Connor…" Crystal didn't have time to finish her sentence; Connor pulled her closer to him and kissed her. Not even Cutter was going to ruin this moment.

Jack looked behind him he didn't plan to lose his sister twice and so when he found she wasn't behind him, he made everyone stop and trudge back round the corner.

They all stopped short of appearing round the corner, to go any further might cause a disturbance to the scene that was in front of them.

"Well we all knew it would happen one day!" Cutter whispered to the group as their gazes had all been drawn to their two colleagues in their embrace.

"Let's go back round the corner and wait, leave them be. I know I wouldn't want to be watched if I was in that situation." Abi said persuading them all to leave Connor and Crystal be and wait for them. Jack was very eager to agree with Abi as it was his sister they were watching.

"I think we should find the others…they're going to notice we've not followed in a minute," Crystal dropped in gently knowing that at that moment neither of them wanted to move.

"Yeah, ok," Connor agreed regrettably. Linking hands they walked down the corridor, taking their time as to elongate the moment a little longer before it had to be broken.

"Caution they're coming!" Steven hissed trying to motivate his colleagues so that they didn't look like they had been watching Connor and Crystal. Catching on Cutter began to lead them down the corridor and they all fell into place as if nothing had happened.

Connor and Crystal picked up their pace and quickly joined the back of the group liking the way that nobody seemed to notice their appearance but knowing full well they all knew what had been happening in the last five minutes or so.

_please stick with this story, I promise it will get very exciting in a few chapters time! _


	13. time to get out of here

**Chapter 13**

It was the way everything felt ordinary that reminded Crystal of what she had done. On the sudden remembrance of this she let go of Connor's hand and held her hand over her head in shame.

"Crystal? What's wrong?" Connor asked immediately after he noticed her hand fall from his.

Connor's question made Steven turn around to them.

"Oh god, oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to but Helen…" Crystal stammered. The reception room door was in sight and her guilt was increase with the memory of watching the whole of event on CCTV camera but being able to do nothing about it.

"Look sis, it wasn't your fault you didn't purposefully put us all in their and direct all those creatures in there, Helen forced you and for Christ's sake she had a gun!" Jack attempted to calm his sister.

Cutter halted at this point turning round to listen to the content of the conversation.

"What's this about?" he asked generally to anyone who was willing to answer him.

"The reason that you all ended up locked in that room, with the creatures was because of me." Crystal confessed. Jack then explained the rest of the story.

"Can you take us to this room?" Cutter asked Crystal who shook her head.

"I can," Jack perked up. Cutter's attention turned to Jack, he was a little surprised but nevertheless glad that someone could.

"Come on then lead the way!" Cutter encouraged. Jack wiggled his way to the front leaving the others confused at Cutter's intentions.

"If they managed to direct the creatures into the room there must be a way we can direct them out!" Cutter informed them.

All now understanding the plan they followed Jack as he led them to the small room in which Helen had forced Crystal and him to rebuild the computer.

It didn't take long to reach the room as Jack seemed to remember the route perfectly. On entering the room Connor went immediately to the computer.

"It's still working…" Connor noted as the screen flashed up.

"Well of course it is!" Crystal frowned wondering if he had paid any attention to Jack's explanation.

"It's not exactly in order, in fact this piece should be in here…" Connor attempted to remove the piece that he was talking about from the back of the main screen and place it in its rightful place.

"Well I didn't exactly have much time!" Crystal exclaimed. Connor looked up, surprised.

"You did this?" he asked.

"Weren't you listening the explanation?" Jack asked him.

Connor froze, taking a second to recall if he had listened to any sort of explanation within the last half an hour.

"Um, must've switched off," he admitted.

Crystal sighed shaking her head. She walked over to Connor and forced the mouse off of him. She returned the screen to the software she had been using to carry out Helen's demands and showed him what she had done in order to get the creatures to file into the one room. Then Connor suggested that they traced the software back and tried to find out exactly what had caused the creatures to move and see if they could recreate it only reverse the command.

"Shall we just leave them to it?" Abi joked as she saw Crystal pull a chair over to the computer.

Jack had already found himself somewhere to perch on (the table), cutter was propped up against the wall and Steven was leaning on the desk. They had all figured that this was going to take some time and gotten themselves momentarily comfortable for the wait.

"Got it!" Connor exclaimed turning to Cutter for verification. "What do you want me to do now?"

Cutter moved away from the wall and walked over to the computer, he bent down and looked at the screen trying to un-jumble the strange computing signs that Connor seem to know all about.

"Right, ok, if we were to press the button now where would they all go?" Cutter asked figuring the best way to go about this was to think ahead.

"Back to where they were originally, so the cage for the sabre-tooth and so forth." Connor replied.

Cutter nodded, "Gone on then," He assented.

Connor turned his head back to the screen and did a few clicks with the mouse.

"No, wait!" Steven cried.

"The door still locked," Steven said at the same time as Connor told him it was too late.

Crystal stood up, remembering she had the code in her pocket and knowing the situation was urgent she hastened out the room without so much as a word of where she was going. Cutter assumed for the earlier comment that Crystal was going to try to open the door and sent Steven after her.

"Crystal!" Steven yelled after her as she ran round the corner. She wasn't going to stop for anyone at that moment for she knew that time matter and every second wasted was more time lost in the succeeding of their plan.

Steven broke into a run, not want to lose sight of Crystal for two reasons: one being that he had been told to look out for her and he couldn't very well do that if she was nowhere in his sight and two being that he didn't really know the way back to the room, he knew that this was the ARC but for some reason the route just didn't seem familiar to him.

With some fast running Steven managed to catch up with Crystal just as she reached the door. He had to take a moment to get his breath back and so could only watch and hope as Crystal got a piece of paper out and bent down over the controls.

Unseen by Steven she slid the control panel and clicked the enter button as she had seen Helen do, then she pressed the green button then the yellow in succession and the number key to follow, then the red button, almost forgetting to press it twice, and the enter key, keeping her fingers crossed. The screen suddenly bleeped and displayed a green light reading 'Opening'. Silently congratulating herself Crystal stood up, knowing they didn't have long at all now. She pushed the non-moving Steven in the direction of the corridor.

"We have about five seconds to get out of here!" Crystal explained when Steven gave her an annoyed look.

They were only half way up the corridor when Crystal realised the door was fully open and the sound of paws and claws entering the corridor became very prominent in her ears.

"I would highly suggest going just a little faster Steven!" Crystal urged him.

They had only just managed to get round the corner fully before they became subjected to any of the creatures that where leaving the reception, at a more leisurely pace they continued on back to where they left the rest of the team.

As soon as they reached the door Crystal dashed straight to the computer almost knocking Connor away from the seat.

"How are we doing?" she asked even though she was already there and able to see for herself. With this in mind Connor didn't validate her with an answer.

Crystal began to type away into the computer and with her head in the way Connor couldn't quite see what it was that she was typing.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Locking doors…" she said her mind too busy to get out a full sentence of exactly what she was doing.

"For what?" was Connor's inevitable reply.

"The creatures have all gone back to where they were originally, so I'm keeping them there." Crystal explained.

Crystal's typing was the only thing that could be heard for a while until she pressed the enter key hard and lifted her hand away from the keyboard.

"So now we can all get going safely!" Jack said having become impatient.

"Wait I'm locking them individually," Crystal held her hand out to indicate she wasn't finished.

Jack sighed and pulled himself back into a standing position after trying to walk away. They waited what seemed like ages to Jack but in reality only about 3 minutes or so before Crystal removed her hands away from the keyboard and turned around.

"Now we can go!" she said. Jack immediately bounded into action and headed towards the door not before Cutter had stopped him and put him in his place, behind him. Steven, Abi and Connor followed on after Jack leaving Crystal to bring up the rear after double checking the computer had done what she had asked it to do.

They all congregated in the reception room, the door had become a problem. It seemed to be stuck in its position and unwilling to budge.

Cutter tried it first, pushing it how he would normally push the door and found it wouldn't move. Steven had then taken over putting it down to Cutter's lack of strength that was preventing the door from opening but he couldn't make it move either. Jack had, in his mind, thought he was stronger than both Steven and Cutter and pushed them out the way to try the door himself causing himself a little embarrassment when he discovered he couldn't.

"It shouldn't be locked…" Crystal tried to sound positive although she was questioning herself at this point in time.

"Then it's just a little stiff…" Abi followed Crystal positive comment and while everyone had paused to wonder what to do, she went up to the door and instead of just pushing it she focussed on where the lock was and gently pressed on that one area. There was a small click and Abi looked triumphantly back at the team. She had managed to open a door that had struck three men clueless; Abi was awash with a feeling of smugness as she held the door open for them to go through.

Jack was the last one through, he let Abi go in front of him because he was determined to work out what was wrong with the door and so while Abi joined the others who had begun walking down the road, Jack held back testing the lock mechanise on the door.

After a while, and finding nothing wrong, Jack gave up. He realised that he had put some distance between himself and the rest of the team and readied himself to run after them.

He had made one step when he heard the sound of glass smashing and then found himself staring into the eyes of the sabre-tooth tiger. Jack froze.

"Um guys…" he started softly and when he got no answer he raised his voice and repeated it again.

The tiger had begun prowling towards him, making him take strides backwards. He was beginning to panic now.

"GUYS!" he shouted as a last resort.

Crystal turned round, attuned to the shout, she pulled Connor to a halt and his screech made everyone else turn too.

"Don't move!" Steven called out to Jack when he realised the predicament.

Jack muttered under his breath: 'I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer' as he eyed the sabre-tooth to make sure he wasn't going to be caught unaware.

Steven pulled out his gun; he loaded it and then aimed it at the creature, his hand trembling slightly. He pulled the trigger but missed the tiger. Crystal whipped her head round to Steven giving him a glare.

"It was a warning shot!" he tried to defend himself. Crystal brought it and turned back to face the scene. Steven made a mock sigh of relief behind Crystal's back.

He brought the gun up again and completed the same process; he knew he couldn't miss now. This time he hit straight on target and the sabre-tooth fell limp on its side.

Crystal ran straight passed the tiger and embraced her brother.

_Coming up to some real action soon so keep reading and reviewing!_


	14. back home

**Chapter 14**

"Let's get going before any other creatures break free," Cutter encouraged his team to get moving again.

Jack broke away from his sister's embrace, shaking it off as he tried to maintain his dignity.

The team began to move off again, Crystal let her brother drift away from her and towards Abi and Steven she joined the group next to Connor and after a while their hands began to slowly join together.

Helen step through the anomaly back into the ARC, she wore a grin on her face for her mission was complete and although she knew nothing would take effect immediately she was thinking ahead and all in all quite pleased with how her experiment had turned out.

She turned towards the anomaly and bent down to use the locking device to lock it and then she used her own device to close the anomaly. With that last task done, Helen was positive that her experiment had been completed but there was only one way to find out for sure.

The team found that they only had to go round two corners until the anomaly came into view nobody bothered to rush it showed no signs of fading. Crystal gripped tighter to Connor's hand, she had suddenly began to feel funny, a light headed almost fainting feeling that she was determined to battle through until they were at least through the anomaly.

It was a relief for everyone for the ordeal to be over with and to be heading back home. Nobody took the time to glance back at what they were leaving, it wasn't worth it not when home and everything familiar was just behind the glittering anomaly.

As Connor step through the anomaly after Steven he felt Crystal's hand lose grip of hisher ring fell off in his hand and he kept it tightly clasped in his left hand as he tried to regain the contact with his other hand but figured due to the positioning of themselves to get through the anomaly it was more sensible to let go then to try and struggle through with the risk of hurting each other.

As he stepped out of the anomaly he was confused, they had emerged into the ARC which wasn't where he remembered the anomaly to be. Cutter and Abi who had made themselves comfortable around the front table didn't seem to be bothered by it at all.

"Why are we in the ARC?" Connor asked.

Abi and Cutter exchanged glances.

"Because the anomaly opened up here," Abi said temporarily going with Connor's slight memory lapse.

"No it wasn't," Connor began to argue.

"Yes it was Connor." Abi dismissed the conversation in a tone that was meant to ward him away from the apparent pretence but only confusing him further.

Connor was still left bemused and needing answers; Abi was clearly in no mood to be asking questions to so Connor turned round to re-ask the same question to Crystal. Despite having only been a few minutes since they both came through the anomaly Crystal was nowhere in sight.

"Crystal…" Connor began before realising he was talking to no one.

"Hey where's Crystal?" he asked turning round and directing it to anyone who would answer him.

Abi, Steven and Cutter looked at each other with blank faces, what was he on about?

"Who?" Steven queried his face showing true confusion.

"Very funny guys, come on where is she?" Connor's mind automatically dismissed Steven's expression to save himself the pain of the truth.

"No really Connor, we don't know anyone called Crystal."Abi reinforced the one thing Connor didn't want to hear.

"yeah, sure you do…" Connor wasn't so confident anymore; he was desperate to hear a positive comment here.

"What's going on?" Connor asked, giving up his hope. His face showing hurt and confusion, so much that Cutter was concerned something had him extremely worried.

Moving towards him Cutter answered Connor's question with an ambiguous 'I don't know'.

"So I guess there's no Jack either," Connor took a wild stab in the dark.

"Jack? My brother? What the hell would he be doing here?!" Abi exclaimed shuddering at the thought of it.

"ABI!" Cutter reprimanded. "Clearly something's happened during travelling through the anomaly to cause Connor to have become so confused, we just need to discover what…"

"Connor's right you know," A new voice entered the room. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but he's telling the truth, there was a Crystal in the team." In the confusion no one had actually noticed that the anomaly had reopened and Helen had stepped out of it.

"Helen! I might have known you'd be involved, why don't you leave us all alone!" Cutter indicated towards the door as the means for leaving them all alone.

"Nick, don't you think you owe it to Connor for an explanation about all this?" Cutter knew he couldn't rightly argue with that, they were all owed an explanation, especially the confused befuddled Connor. Cutter nodded indicating, regrettably, that she was allowed to continue.

"When you refused to help me, I conducted my own experiment…" Helen began.

"Oh of course you did!" Cutter interjected. Helen turned her attention to Cutter.

"Nick, if you're going to keep interrupting, this is going to take forever." she warned. Cutter rolled his eyes and looked the other way. His lips were seal for now.

"I changed one thing in one girl's life and observed the differences it made and then I reversed the situation, going back and undoing what I done and am now observing the results. It seems that everything has gone back to normal apart from Connor became too involved and now can't remember the original situation."

"Helen, you shouldn't have done this! Messing with people's lives is unethical and in this case you've gone too far…" Steven looked up at Connor to show what he meant. He had been keeping quiet for a while but Helen's explanation of the truth and angered him, enough for him to feel he had to speak up.

"As touching as that is Steven, it was a learning curve and one day you'll be thanking me!" Helen retorted.

"Just leave Helen." Cutter told her, the explanation was done and now he was fed up with her bragging.

"So soon? Arh well I should've guessed you'd want rid of me!" Helen laughed already heading to the anomaly. Being in the ARC in plain view of the team wasn't something she had been keen to do but she had found it to be essential in collecting the results of her experiment. She had what she needed and now was her time to leave. She pushed through the anomaly and it closed immediately after her.

Connor retreated to the stool beside the table, taking the weight off his already trembling legs. Abi began to walk towards him but Cutter gave a signal to back away, he needed sometime alone to get over the shock.

After a moment's thought Cutter decided that it was best that they all leave Connor alone for a while and so he ushered Steven and Abi out of the room.

Connor had his head in his hands, fighting away the tears. This had come as such a blow to him that he didn't know how to react. His nightmare had come true, he had lost Crystal. Reaching into his pocket he searched avidly with hope; hope that he still had one thing connected to Crystal. The ring.

He held it in his hand a while, his mind a-whiz with memories. Remembering that he had a piece of black cord in his pocket, Connor took it out and threaded the ring through it, tying it up at the end and placing it carefully around his neck. Now he would always have a part of Crystal with him wherever he went. He vowed from then on to never take the ring off, in memory of Crystal.

Cutter hovered at the doorway, he was contemplating whether it was the right time to go and talk to him or whether he should leave it a little longer. Blow it, it was now or he was never going to get the chance.

"Connor?" Cutter started, sitting down in the seat next to him.

"I know how you feel." He continued.

"You do?" Connor frowned.

"When I lost Claudia," Cutter answered the questionable look on Connor's face.

"Claudia?" Connor echoed, not having a clue what Cutter was going on about.

"Oh, yeah, I suppose you don't remember?" Cutter recalled the situation in time.

Connor shook his head.

"The same thing happened; I came back through the anomaly to find Claudia gone. The only difference was in her place was someone who looked, talked, acted like her but wasn't…that hurt the most. At least you can remember her the way you remember her." Cutter explained. Connor forced a smile; he did at least have that to be thankful for.

"Oh come on!" Cutter exclaimed retaining his urge to hug Connor no longer.

"Now, there's work to be done, try seeing if you can get that locking device up and running!" Cutter left him with a pat on the back and a smile.

Connor chuckled, something hadn't changed there was always work to do!

_shorter chapter then normal but equally as exciting I hope!_


	15. dealing with the change

**Chapter 15 **

With the laptop open and tools all around him, Connor began to get engrossed into his work. The device was coming together neatly and he was almost onto the finishing touches as he decided to take a quick break. Grabbing a cup of coffee he sat down at the laptop, his right hand hovered over the keyboard. Did he really want to know? Could he cope with the knowledge?

With his forefinger he typed the letter C and then paused taking a deep breath and typed R, Y following behind and then another pause. S, T, A, L. An even longer pause as he gazed at what he wrote. With more confidence and a more positive and determined attitude, Connor typed the rest of her surname into the search bar and was hovering over the enter key when Abi came up behind him.

"Do you really think that's a good idea Connor?"Abi asked him. "Even if she does exist, she won't be the person you used to know!"

Connor moved his hand away from the enter key and sighed, Abi was right the exercise was pointless and besides that what was he going to do after he found out? Go and see her? And as Cutter had explained, her ignorance of him would be heart-breaking, no he was better of not knowing anything.

He pushed the backspace button and deleted what he had written, then sat back with his mildly warm cup of coffee convincing himself he had done the right thing.

As he was drinking his coffee, Steven walked in behind him slapping him on the back and nearly making him choke on his half swallowed mouthful.

"You alright Connor?" he asked generally.

"Yep," Connor said in a high pitch squeal as he recovered from almost choking.

"Oh, have you nearly finished this then?" Steven had walked up to the locking device, examining it and was about to lift it up when Connor yelled 'don't touch it!'

Steven backed away from the device hands held up in defence.

At the same time Cutter emerged at the doorway but didn't adventure in.

"Steven, Meeting?!" Cutter's tone was a mix of annoyance and sarcasm.

"Oh gosh, yeah the meeting! I'm so sorry!" Steven blurted out, rushing to the door following Cutter towards the meeting room.

With Steven gone, Connor put his empty mug on the side and hurried to the device, checking all over to make sure Steven hadn't messed anything up. When everything had been discovered ok, he began to continue working on it.

With the room silent, Connor was able to concentrate really hard and complete the device to the best of his ability.

"It's done!" he told nobody. He had forgotten that he was the only one in the room, the only one to create the locking device. He stood up, looking around, he had to tell somebody.

Moving out into the hall Connor searched for somebody he could tell, the hall was silent. There was no sign of anybody not even a guard. Growing impatient he started running up the stairs, in time to catch Cutter and Steven leaving their meeting.

"I've done it!" he announced before they had a chance to even realise that he was there.

"Good, I guess we're going to get a demonstration?" Cutter quickly followed Connor's thoughts.

"It's all set up, ready to go…if you want to do it now?" Connor's excitement was showing through clearly now.

"I suppose I'll have to come and watch this demonstration…" a new figure walked into the corridor.

"Yes Hestor you will!" Connor replied grinning.

"Did he just call me Hestor?" the comment was directed at Cutter who nodded, his eyebrows pointing downwards in confusion.

"What's wrong with that or is it Mr Hestor nowadays?" Connor asked.

"What the heck's got into you its Lester, there's no H involved." Replied the now annoyed Lester.

Connor turned to Cutter.

"Is this something else that's changed for me?" He asked.

"I think so," agreed Cutter.

Connor sighed and turned around lethargically descending the stairs.

"What's this all about?" Lester demanded.

"We'll tell you later," Steven hissed.

Cutter and Steven followed Connor down the stairs and Lester huffed, rolled his eyes but joined the others as they descended the slick modern stairs.

A few minutes later, with them hovered around the locking device, Connor's hand paused over the touch pad waiting to type in the password and begin the demonstration.

"Are you all ready?" Connor asked, the excitement having returned to his eyes.

Cutter and Steven nodded.

"Oh get on with it Connor!" Lester exclaimed, thinking about the million and one other things he could be doing with his time.

Connor had just literally put one finger down on the touch pad when the Anomaly detector sang in their ears.

Abandoning the locking device Connor leapt over to the anomaly detector pressing a few buttons so they could view the whole information about the incoming alert. He let Cutter read over his shoulder to save him having to repeat the information to him.

"Right well you can pack up the locking device and take it with you, we'll have a proper demonstration! Steven could you help? I'll get the car ready and find Abi." Cutter relayed the battle plan.

Connor jumped to his tasks as Cutter left the room. Steven wandered in to help a few moments later. He picked up a piece of the device that Connor was dismantling.

"Where does this go?" Steven asked limply holding the object in his hand.

"Arh! Don't touch that, it needs to stay with the other piece!" Connor yelled snatching the object off him.

After a few more times of Steven picking up something to put it away only to have the object snatched out of his hands and put away by Connor, he gave up. Standing back and letting Connor pack the device away in the 'correct' order.

About five minutes later, when Connor was for all intents and purposes finished with the packing, Cutter re-entered the room. He looked at Steven and frowned.

"I tried helping but he just kept taking the things off me so I gave up!" Steven defended himself before Cutter could say anything.

Cutter gave Steven one sharp nod of agreement and walked over to Connor.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yeah," Connor replied flicking the button down on the case.

"Come on then." Cutter said gently.

Connor picked up two cases of equipment and stared at the other two. He would have to make two trips.

Steven, on seeing his predicament, took it upon his self to carry the last two cases, much to Connor's annoyance but then there wasn't really much choice.

There was a pause as Connor persuaded himself that Steven wouldn't drop the cases, before they set off out the ARC in search of the anomaly.

In the warehouse that surrounded the anomaly, Connor began to reassemble the locking device, he had refused help from everyone that had offered and so they had gone off scouring the area checking for any visible signs of a creature.

They came back with nothing to show, in a good way, and ended up hanging around for Connor to finish.

"Come on by the time you've finished the anomaly will be closed!" Abi joked, receiving a large push from Steven which nearly made her fall off the box she was resting on.

"It's nearly there!" Connor replied from underneath one of the four main points. He emerged from the shadows and went to the control pad.

He smiled to himself as he began to type the password: C_R_Y_S_T_A_L.

Her memory would live on through his use of her name.

_the last ever chapter hope you enjoyed reading it!_


End file.
